Enjoy the silence
by Sweet Executioner
Summary: The Winter War is over. Ulquiorra is imprisoned as well as other arrancars. Can he remain the same or will he change and help Soul Society in the end? // UlquiorraxOC.
1. A half silent day

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(1)** A half-silent day**

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"Ulquiorra Schiffer. The former Cuarta Espada" she muttered, as she was walking towards the captives' cells, reading a file.

The Winter War was over, and in the end, Soul Society won. The arrancar who survived, were executed immediately at the end of the war, but Soul Society kept the few remained Espada - and their fracción - as captives, in order to decide about their future later. Captain Kurotsuchi made special bracelets, which had the ability to weaken them. The after-war realignments, and the recruiting engaged the leaders of the squads, that's how Miyake Reiko, 3rd seat of the 10th Division ended up as the caretaker of Ulquiorra Schiffer. Her duty was to make the former Espada speak, and - if it's even possible - try to turn him into an ally.

The more she was absorbed in the file, the more she slowly forgot about her surroundings, and she successfully bumped into Captain Ukitake.

"I am so sorry, captain, I was inattentive." she gabbled off her apology, watching the wooden floor.

Ukitake - being as nice as he is - smiled at the girl kindly. "No problem, Miyake." he said calmly. "Do you know, where's Captain Hitsugaya?"

The girl's dark red eyes widened, as she looked at the captain with a scared look on her face. "I think, he's in his office as always." she said. _'I hope you don't want to give him sweets again.' _she added to herself.

The captain nodded, and started to walk towards the 10th Division's office. Rei sighed, shooking her head slightly. After a few minutes of walking, she arrived to the cells, where the guard let her in quickly and showed her where she had to go. Grimmjow, Ulquiorra and Stark were the only ones who were still alive from the Espada, and there were a few fracción as well, so now Soul Society had to take care of them. Nel was the exception, because she stood by Ichigo's side from the starts, and thanks to Orihime, she was the same again. Rei took a deep breath, before she entered the room.

Across from the door there was a large, cherry tree desk, so the appointed shinigami could do her/his paperwork, if it was needed. _'Great, Matsumoto will hide her paperwork here from now on.'_ she thought bitterly, and walked to the cell. "You're Ulquiorra Schiffer, right?" she asked the man who stood by the bars and he nodded in response. "My name is Miyake Reiko, and I'll see after you from now."

In Ulquiorra's head things were getting a little bit confused. "You?" he asked a few minutes later in an emotionless tone.

"Yes." Rei replied shortly after she'd sat down behind her desk, and started to do her paperwork.

The former Cuarta Espada silently watched the female shinigami who had dark red eyes, with long, greyish black hair, tiny nose and creamy skin. She was pretty, at least other men probably thought that about her. He wasn't used to think about anyone that way, and he wasn't planning to do it anytime soon, since she was trash like everyone else in Soul Society. Even the other arrancar were trash.

Seconds. Minutes. Hours. All of them passed in complete silence, neither of them spoke. Rei looked up. She expected the former Espada to be walking back and forth in his little cell, but instead he sat on a chair in the middle of the place and watched the wall. Sitting on the chair this calmly, he didn't seem as dangerous as everyone'd told her before she came here. She'd thought Ulquiorra was similar to Grimmjow who she'd met before, but she'd been wrong. The former Espada was calm, quiet and he didn't want to manipulate her, in other words, he was the perfect prisoner.

Rei heard a loud knock on the door. "Come in," she said.

A woman showed up with long, strawberry-blonde hair, blue eyes and large breasts. Yes, she was definitely Matsumoto Rangiku. "Hello," she said in a sing-song tone. "What are you doing?" she asked with a huge smile, sitting on the edge of the table.

"I'm working. You know, paperwork and other stuffs." Rei replied sarcastically. The lieutenant knew what Rei meant by her sentence, but she didn't feel like working, so she looked at the arrancar for a moment, then turned back to the other shinigami with a questioning look. Rei sighed heavily. "I have to look after him for a while." she replied, leaning back in her chair.

"I know." she whispered. "But has he done or said anything interesting?" The 3rd seat officer looked at her incredulously. "Come on, Rei. You know I love gossips."

"Of course you do." Rei said, shaking her head slowly. "No, he hasn't done _anything_ yet." she continued, emphasizing the word 'anything'. "Anyway, Captain Ukitake was looking for Captain Hitsugaya. Has he found him?"

Rangiku shrugged. "I don't know. Actually I left the office three hours ago." she said. Rei lifted an eyebrow. "Lunch." she added. "And the taichou was also mad at me for some reason." The other shinigami gave her a look. "Okay, maybe I pissed him off."

"You should go back to work." she suggested. "Maybe he won't be angry if you finish your paperwork instead of hiding it for once."

"You're a workaholic, just like Captain Hitsugaya." She obviously wasn't happy about the fact that one of her friends tried to get rid of her. But Rei was right, and she knew that, too. "Alright, I'll do it." she said.

Reiko nodded, and waved goodbye to Matsumoto. After she left, the room was silent again. _'Sweet silence,'_ she thought happily, and turned her attention back to the paperwork. After about half an hour, it was already time for her to go. Time flew by fast, and she hadn't heard the prisoner since she'd arrived. _'Strange,' _she thought. Glancing towards the cell, she saw the arrancar sitting on the chair in the same position she'd seen him a couple of hours before. _'Even stranger.'_ She put the files away, stood up and walked to the cell. "I'm leaving," she stated. Ulquiorra looked at her, but remained silent. "Alright, so you won't talk. I'll come back tomorrow. Until then, someone will check if you're here and okay every once in a while." The former Espada nodded silently. Reiko shook her head resignedly, and left the office.

_'Maybe he'll speak tomorrow.'_

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**A/N: **So, how do you like it so far? Tell me what you think. I know it's lame to give a title of a song for the story, but it's the best I could come up with. I mean Ulquiorra isn't a talkative one, is he?

(Oh, and I need a beta reader.)


	2. Oh my, he can speak!

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(2)** Oh my, he can speak!**

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"Come in," Rei heard the voice of the 10th Division's captain from the other side of the door.

She entered the office and walked to his desk. "Good morning, Captain," she said with a bow, and put a file on the desk. "Here's my report about yesterday."

Hitsugaya gave her a small smile. He was happy to have someone on his team, who was never late with the paperwork unlike Matsumoto. She was a lieutenant, she should set an example to the whole division like he did, but no. It was starting to be a bit more than annoying. "Thank you, Miyake." he said, and gestured towards the chair. Rei sat down, and looked at her captain. She always followed the orders she got from him or other captains. She was a good shinigami, he had to admit that one. "What's your opinion about him?" he asked suddenly after a few minutes of silence.

"My opinion?" she repeated the question. "Well... He didn't do anything. Literally." Sighing heavily, she leaned back in the chair. "I talked to Captain Unohana, but it seems like they have never given him any kind of tranquillizer. I absolutely have no idea why he's acting like this," she said as her eyes softened at the thought.

"Hn," was all he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you think he's up to something?" he asked her in a serious tone. The girl shrugged in response and ran a hand through her greyish black hair in frustration.

"No, I don't think so. But I might be wrong. I need some time to earn his trust first." she said.

The captain nodded. "Alright," he said. "Go back to work." Rei nodded as she stood up and walked towards the door. "Oh, wait a second." Hitsugaya called after her. "Be careful because he's good at mind games."

The 3rd seat snorted. "Yeah, right. If he wants to play then I'll play with him." she said, her lips curling up into a small smirk. "At least there's something we're both good at," she added quietly. With that the girl left the office and made her way to Ulquiorra's cell.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The shinigami from the day before was back again. _'Can't a prisoner be alone for a few hours without being watched?' _he thought as he watched the her. Back in Las Noches he was the one who looked after a prisoner; a girl called Inoue Orihime. He remembered her clearly, since she'd once visited him after the war. She was still trash, this one hasn't changed. "Woman," he said.

Rei looked up at him. "Are you talking to me?" she asked, slightly surprised by the fact that Ulquiorra Schiffer spoke.

"Obviously," he replied shortly with a sigh. The shinigami gave him a questioning look, so he continued. "When will you interrogate me?" the arrancar asked, his bright green eyes meeting her dark red ones. He wanted - no, he needed - to know. What other reason could they have for keeping him alive? He'd tried to kill plenty of them when he'd been defending Las Noches.

The shinigami's eyes widened in surprise. "Interrogation?" she asked confusedly. "We don't want to interrogate you." Rei wasn't lying because Soul Society only wanted him and the other arrancar to be their ally in the future. Of course the prisoners didn't know about it yet. _'Is he afraid of being interrogated?'_ she asked herself, looking at the calm arrancar. _'Definitely not. Then why...?'_

Ulquiorra was surprised as well, but he didn't show any kind of emotion. He was still starring at her, thinking about why they didn't want to interrogate him. He was a prisoner of war and prisoners of war were always interrogated by the enemy. "Why not?" he finally asked. His voice was perfectly calm as always.

"The war is over. It's unnecessary," the 3rd seat replied, continuing her paperwork. Ulquiorra Schiffer was a riddle. The day before he'd only said a single yes, and now he was asking questions. The mission seemed to be over faster then she'd expected.

After several minutes the former Espada was still watching her. Why was she so calm? The guard who'd come to check if he was still in his cell last night had been a total moron. He'd tried to make him strike at him. Like he was that stupid. Trying to kill the guard wouldn't be the best idea. But this woman was different. Since he had nothing better to do he just sat on his chair and watched her working, trying to figure out what was going on in her head.

Around noon, Rei got up from her set and walked to Ulquiorra's cell. He was standing in front of a window, watching the shinigami who passed by on the hallway. The 3rd seat coughed to get his attention. "Are you hungry?" she asked as he turned around. He thought about it for a couple of seconds and nodded. "Great. Is there anything you would like to eat?" Ulquiorra shook his head in response the turned back to the window. The shinigami left the room with a small smile. _'He collaborated and didn't even tried to resist.'_ she thought happily because the sooner he fully collaborates, the sooner she'll get her original job back.

The former Espada was now perfectly alone with his thoughts in the office. He still couldn't get over the fact they didn't want to interrogate him. She'd been right. The war was over and Aizen had been executed, but still... It was like he didn't want to accept Soul Society's victory. He had been the Cuarta Espada and Stark had been the Tercera Espada. Yes, Grimmjow'd been the Sexta Espada but he was trash, just like the rest of the soul reapers. Alright, maybe not _that_ much, but he was still trash. He was overconfident in his abilities, and had no idea about the meaning of the word: respect. Just then, the shinigami came back with two bowls in her hands. She put them on her desk and took out a key from an upper drawer. The key of his cell. "What are you doing?" he asked with the smallest of frowns.

Rei chuckled quietly at his question. "Isn't it obvious? I'm opening your cell to give you your lunch." she replied.

"The others haven't opened it before." he pointed out.

"Oh, come on. You're not an animal, nor a psychopath like Jeagerjaques." she said honestly. It was only the second day but she felt like he'd already started to trust her. Maybe it was her imagination and maybe he was acting like that all the time, but who knows? "I hope you don't want to escape." she added inaudibly.

His gaze fell on her hands as she was unlocking the door. "Why are you acting like this? It's illogical." he remarked, raising his gaze to her face. "You should show me you're superior to me." He wasn't lying. Thanks to the bracelets, his power was reduced to nearly zero. Even if the shinigami in front of him was trash, a weakling, she was still much more powerful than he was. The other guards and captains were always acting like he was nothing more than a pitiful creature. But this one was different. She knew that without the bracelets he could destroy her in no time.

"You want me to act like a total moron?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and brought the two bowls to the cell. "Here," she gave him one of them. "Anyway, there had to be a reason why you became the Cuarta Espada." Rei was smiling as she sat down on a chair she'd brought next to the bars before.

Both of them were eating quietly in the next few minutes with the door of the cell closed yet unlocked. When one of the guards came in to get a few files and take them to Yamamoto-soutaichou, he didn't notice that the arrancar could've came out in any second to attack him - even though he didn't want to. After they finished their meals, Rei took the bowl from Ulquiorra and put it on a little table next to the door, then walked back and locked the cell. "Sorry, I have to lock it," she said with a smile. The former Espada didn't say anything only nodded.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Hours passed in complete silence. Ulquiorra didn't feel like talking, and Rei didn't feel like forcing him. This state was true for the next few weeks as well. They had short conversations, but they never talked about serious things again, and the rest of the day always passed in silence. Rumor had it a few captains wanted to execute the arrancars, but fortunately other captains - the majority - stood against it. There were a couple of arguments about it between the members of the divisions, so Yamamoto-soutaichou made a deal with the captains. If a prisoner tries to hurt or kill a shinigami, they have to be executed right away. It was fair enough, but Reiko was afraid that a few shinigami will try to enrage them on purpose. And who was the easiest target? Yes, the hotheaded and incredibly rude Grimmjow Jeagerjaques.

But she didn't care about him since her duty was to take care of Ulquiorra Schiffer. The one who was calm and collected, so she had nothing to worry about.

One aftertoon she was going home from work, when she heard someone yelling behind her.

"Miyake," a guy with bright orange hair yelled, making the female shinigami turn back. "The guards didn't let me talk to Ulquiorra." he complained.

Rei's lips curled into a victorious smirk. "Good." she said calmly.

"What?" he asked as his eyes widened in shock. "It's not good. I have to talk to him." he shouted.

"You don't _have to_, Kurosaki." she remarked dryly. "But if you want you can talk to him tomorrow." her voice was calm and collected as always. Of course, Ichigo only wanted to show Ulquiorra his superiority like he'd done with the other arrancars - especially with Grimmjow. He hadn't been to Soul Society since Yamamoto announced his deal, so Rei commanded the guards not to let Kurosaki Ichigo talk to the prisoner. _'Stupid, stubborn Kurosaki,' _she thought angrily because he started to complain again. "Tomorrow!" the 3rd seat interrupted him. "And the guards only followed my orders." she added, back to her calm self. Ichigo muttered something under his breath but walked away. "Idiot." she remarked to herself quietly and sighed heavily. _'Tomorrow's gonna be a loooong day.'_

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**A/N:** Here's the next chapter. I hope you liked it.


	3. Falling apart

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(3)** Falling apart**

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Next morning the substitute shinihami was waiting for Rei on the hallway, when he heard someone's steps. The third seat arrived in time with an irritated expression on her face. "Yo," he greeted her casually.

Reiko bowed slightly in response. "Before we go in, I have to tell you something," she said as he gave her a questioning look. "I have one condition. You won't even try to enrage him." she stated firmly. "I really don't want him to be executed because of you stupidity." Rei added as she moved towards the door. During the last few weeks she'd been kind of defending Ulquiorra from the ones who wanted to see him dead. Strange? Yes, definitely strange.

"First of all, I'm not stupid, Miyake," he said. The other shinigami only rolled her eyes at this. "And don't worry, he won't get hurt." Ichigo had no idea why she wanted to defend him so much, since Ulquiorra had tried to kill him before, so he would have deserved some kind of punishment. But no, she defended him. Hitsugaya'd told him something about it, but he just couldn't recall what the captain had said.

"Alright," she said with a heavy sigh, and opened the door. A guard sat at her desk, while Ulquiorra stood in the middle of the cell, watching them. Rei sent out the guard, who lazily stood up and left the room. They stood in silence for a couple of minutes. For some unknown reason Ichigo didn't say anything, Rei waited for the guys to start talking and the arrancar watched the 3rd seat with a questioning look on his face. Or something like that. "What?" she snapped.

Ulquiorra remained silent. He didn't want to talk to Kurosaki, but he knew there was a reason for his presence. The 3rd seat got tired of the silence, so she walked to the desk and started to do her paperwork. Ulquiorra was still watching her, following and analyzing all of her movements and, because of that, he missed the look in Ichigo's eyes.

The substitute shinigami noticed something new. Something he had never seen in the eyes of an arrancar before, let alone an Espada. It looked like he was actually sad by the tone Rei used. And no, it wasn't trademark frown or the black lines under his eyes. Ulquiorra Schiffer, the former Cuarta Espada was sad. Of course his eyes were back to normal in the next minute, but Ichigo knew what he'd seen. He cleared his throat and spoke up. "How are you?" he asked casually, like he was talking to one of his friends.

Even Rei was surprised and shocked by his question. She thought Kurosaki will act like a jerk, but he was normal and somewhat kind. _'Does he really want to have a normal conversation?'_ she wondered in herself.

Ulquiorra was surprised as well. He finally looked at Ichigo who was waiting for his answer. "Fine," he answered suspiciously, then added in a quieter voice "I think." He turned back to the girl. Why wasn't she helping him? Why was she sitting at her desk, doing her paperwork instead? With these questions racing in his mind, he turned to Ichigo because he spoke up again.

"Hey, don't worry. I don't want to argue with you or anything." he said as his lips curled up into an evil smirk. "Miyake didn't allowed me to do such thing," the substitute added.

"Kurosaki," she hissed dangerously, not looking up from the papers.

The former Espada looked at Kurosaki with a raised eyebrow. "She didn't?" he asked, waiting for his answer calmly. At least he was calm on the outside, but on the inside he was confused by his own... feelings. **'Feelings?' **a skeptic voice asked in his head. **'Now you have feelings?'**

Ichigo chuckled quietly, seeing the fellow shinigami's face turning redder by the second. "That's right," he said. "She seemed pretty serious when she warned me about this," he added viciously, waiting for Rei to start yelling at him. She was the same as her beloved captain - and because of that he loved to annoy her.

"Would you please come out to the hallway for a second?" she asked sweetly, finally looking up at him. The orange-haired nodded, and followed her outside. Rei leaned on the rail, watching the other shinigamis as she spoke."It was cool how kind you were and all, but please, don't get me into your conversations again. My duty is to get him on our side, and you'd better not messing up my plans," she said coldly. "On the first day I didn't want to push him and I tried to be a bit cold, then I tried to be kind, and in the last week I was protective. And he still doesn't speak. Okay, he talks to me, but not about the significant things."

"You wanna gain his trust, huh?" he asked with a smirk. "Let me guess..."

"Yes?" Rei suddenly turned his attention to a woman, who came with a tray in her hand, and now stood a few steps from the 3rd seat.

"Uhm," she started nervously "I'm Fukuda from the 4th Divison. I have to give Ulquiorra Schiffer his breakfast." Rei nodded, so she made her way into the office.

Turning back to Ichigo Rei spoke up. "Sorry. You said something like let me guess," she said.

The substitute shinigami laughed lightly as he scratched the back of his neck."Yeah, so you wanna gain his trust by pretending to be his friend?" Rei nodded with a mysterious smirk. He knew this smirk of hers well enough to know she didn't want to only pretend it. The little liar.

"My turn. Why did you want to talk to him?" she demanded. She'd been wondering about this since they'd talked a day before.

Just when Ichigo was about to answer her question, they heard a loud scream from the office. The two of them ran into the room, ready to use their zanpakutous. It took a few seconds for Rei to realize what was just happening. Ulquiorra caught Fukuda's small wrist from behind the bars, holding it strongly enough to nearly break it. "Do something, please," she cried in pain. Ichigo didn't want to hurt the arrancar, so he tried to order him to let her go, but it was useless.

Ulquiorra was still holding her wrist. He had no intention in letting it go, that's why he didn't obey Kurosaki's order. She was trash._ 'How dare she talk to me like that?' _he asked himself, looking at her with cold eyes. The woman made a simple mistake: she acted like she was better than him, Ulquiorra Schiffer. Bad move from her. Then his gaze shifted to Rei who tried to stop the guards from killing him. Oh yes, she'd told him something like this. If he ever tries to even hurt a shinigami, he'll be executed.

"Stop it," she told him a few seconds later. He still didn't move, so she tried again. "Let go of her, Schiffer," she said in a bit more dangerous tone. Nothing. "Please," she added quietly. It seemed like she found the magic word, because he slowly let go of her wrist and took a step backwards.

"Go, and tell it to Yamamoto-soutaichou," one of the guards turned to the other one. "He has to be executed."

"Wait," she said firmly. Both of the guards froze and looked at her curiously. "He didn't do anything wrong."

Fukuda snorted angrily at her statement. "He nearly broke my wrist," she snapped. Rei gave her a warning look. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to sound disrespectful," she said quietly.

"The key word is nearly," Rei said.

Ichigo slowly shook his head. "You know there's a very little chance for that," he remarked, already knowing she will try to protect him. The guards didn't seem to care about the fact, she was their superior. One of them made his way to Yamamoto, while the other one was standing in the door. "I think we have to wait 'till the old man arrives, huh?" he sighed heavily.

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**A/N:** Hey, guys!

It's been a while since I've last updated. I'm sooooooo sorry. You see, there's my advanced history class and if it wasn't enough there's gonna be a fxxxxxx hard exam I have to study for right now :(  
I've only wanted to let you know I didn't forget this story - that's why this chapter is so short. (Oh, and do you know what will be in November? Yup, NaNoWriMo :)

And my answer for toowhiteprincess' review: yes, I'm planning a ReiXUlquiorra pairing, but he won't turn into Prince Charming, don't worry. He will be like... well... he will be like Ulquiorra. Maybe he will talk more to Rei and will be a bit more kind towards her but that's all. (so it's not really a real romance story)

Thanks for your attention,  
Sweet Executioner


	4. Under the Surface

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(4)** Under the surface

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**

Fukuda sat on a chair in front of the desk, watching the wall with dull eyes. She was still scared. Rubbing her aching wrist, she tried to find out why had it all happened to her instead of someone else. Fukuda was only a non-seated member of the 4th Division and her only task was to bring Ulquiorra Schiffer breakfast this morning. She looked at the two other shinigamis, who were sitting on the couch. Even if Miyake, being a 3rd seat, was her superior and probably knew what she was doing, Fukuda still couldn't believe she was protecting the arrancar over her. Of course, she was näive and had no idea about the dirty policy of Soul Society.

In the back of the small cell, Ulquiorra was sitting on the ground, resting his hands on his knees, and watching the shinigamis on the couch who were having a deep conversation about something. He sighed heavily and rested his head against the wall. She was confusing. He loved to analize things, but he couldn't understand her. That simple _please_ was the most confusing of all. _'How can such a little word has such a great effect on someone? That's just stupid.'_ he wondered in himself.

Ichigo was angry. Very angry. And why? Because Rei was acting like an idiot. "You don't have to protect him from Yamamoto," he whispered. "We still have the others," he added a few moments later.

"Maybe you're right," Rei muttered under her breath, staring blankly at the floor. She believed in him. In Ulquiorra. Nel'd joined them, and she was the former Tercera Espada. Maybe there was still a little chance for success.

"Why are you doing this?" Ichigo asked suddenly, bringing the girl out of her trance. "When I met you during the war, you were different," he said quietly, rubbing his forehead. "At a point like this, you would have already admitted it was over and you would have let him die." Rei took a deep breath and finally looked at him.

"The war is over," she stated nonchalantly, like she wasn't interested at all. "Back in the war we had no time for this. But now... We have to give it a try." Ichigo snorted at this. "Or more," she said. "And we still have to defeat him," Rei added quietly.

Ichigo discovered something in her eyes. It was a strange mix of anger and scare, something he had never seen before. "Him?" he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Who are you talking about?" The other shinigami only shook her head. "Rei," he said forcefully.

"I can't tell you," she said, leaning back on the couch. "Not yet. But if you really wanna know," she started when Ichigo opened his mouth to say something "I may ask for permission, so I can tell the whole story to you and the others."

"Promise?"

"Promise," she nodded with a heavy sigh. Thanks to Ichigo she was now thinking about the Winter War.

The room fell silent. Fukuda's gaze was still locked on the wall; she was waiting for Yamamoto to arrive. Of course the young soul reaper didn't feel comfortable in the office among Rei, Ichigo and Ulquiorra. There was the guard as well, but he was busy standing in the door with a bored expression on his face. "He's here," the guard spoke up suddenly, quickly stepping aside.

"Who?" the two on the couch asked in unison.

"Yamamoto-soutaichou," was his short answer.

"Oh," Rei said and stood up quickly, pulling Ichigo up with herself. "Would you please go, and bring Hitsugaya-taichou here?" She asked the guard who nodded and left the room just when the old man arrived. "Yamamoto-soutaichou," she said with a respectful bow.

"What happened?" he asked. His voice was calm and it seemed like he only cared about what happened, not about who were involved in the incident.

Ulquiorra looked at Rei who could only gasp, then he looked at Ichigo who looked at the guard whose gaze fell on Fukuda. After a few moments of deafening silence everyone was looking at the girl. She was trembling because of Yamamoto's spiritual pressure what nearly paralyzed her, but she collected herself and answered his question. "Uhm... I'm Fukuda Ayuzami from 4th Division and this morning Captain Unohana asked me to bring breakfast to Ulquiorra Schiffer. When I arrived here and handled him the tray, he suddenly grabbed my right wrist thightly. I still don't know what made him react this way," she said, sniffling.

_'Oh, great. Acting like a poor little girl who was attacked by an ugly hollow for no particular reason,' _Rei thought sarcastically, glancing at Ulquiorra. The arrancar stood by the bars, his gaze locked on Fukuda. She hoped he wasn't thinking about making comments and he will stay quiet until Yamamoto asks him to talk about the incident. Well, he was intelligent enough to do that.

The old man said nothing after Fukuda'd finished her little speech. After a few seconds he slowly turned to Ichigo. "Would you tell me what are you doing here and what did you see, Kurosaki?" he asked.

"I came here to talk to Ulquiorra," he said. "I asked a few questions like 'how are you' and all, then went to the hallway to talk to Rei. This girl came up to us and Rei let her in. After a couple of minutes we heard her scream so we ran in, but we only saw that Ulquiorra was holding her wrist for some reason," the substitute finished, forgetting the part where Ulquiorra let go of the girl's hand because Rei asked him to do it.

"Why did you attack her?" Yamamoto turned to Ulquiorra as soon as Ichigo finished his story. He still didn't know if he wanted the arrancar to stay alive or not.

The former Espada looked at him with his usual bored expression. He knew he will be executed, so why would he care about answering his question? He remained silent, and after a few seconds he heard someone clearing their throat. It was Rei. _'Damn woman,' _he thought. He felt somewhat sorry for her, since he tried to protect him even though it was obviously impossible. How could he explain all of this to them? How this woman had hurt his pride, if he can call it that.

"So?" the old man tried again.

"I had no reason," he lied calmly. Yamamoto slightly raised an eyebrow, apparently doubting his words. "You wouldn't understand," he corrected himself, but the look on their faces made him try to make them understand it. "She treated me like I was an animal, and I didn't like it. Back in Las Noches I was respected by the others." Well, it wasn't the whole story, but who cares? It wasn't like the old man would let him get away with this.

Yamamoto took a deep breath and thought it through. "Fukuda, please go back to the 4th Division. Tochigi, you can go now, too," he said. The two shinigami quickly left the room, leaving the four of them alone in the office. "I'm sure the deal we made is clear. If an arrancar ever hurts or kills a shinigami, they will be executed. He disobeyed this rule so he will be executed during next week," he stated.

"Uhm... Sir?" Rei spoke up quietly. "Shall I talk to you in private?" Yamamoto nodded and started to walk towards the door with Rei behind him.

Ichigo was now alone with Ulquiorra. He plopped down on the couch, rubbing the back of his neck. "I wonder what is she up to," he remarked. The arrancar looked at him with a blank expression. "Oh, come on. She's trying to save your life, at least try to pretend some interest." He knew something was going on in the arrancar's head; something he didn't want to talk about. "Are you afraid of death?" He asked, even though it was a stupid question since he was an arrancar, and like that, he was already dead.

"No," he replied shortly. There was only one thing he could think about and it wasn't his death. It was why Rei wanted to save him so badly? She never told him that one. Did she have a reason?

* * *

**A/N: **Hey guys. Sorry for the short (and definitely not-my-best) chapter, but I'm pretty busy right now. I'll take a somewhat hard English exam on Monday, even though I'm watching dubbed Bleach (and other anime) episodes all day long. You know, practicing for the hearing part :) I'll update as soon as I have time to write. I swear! I hope you weren't very disappointed with this chapter.  
(Oh, I've just rewatched Memories of Nobody, and I think I'll start another fanfiction as well with a SennaXIchigo pairing. I really miss Senna's character.)


	5. Responsibility

(**A/N:** _from now on there might be some spoilers of recent manga chapters_)

* * *

(5)** Responsibility**

* * *

Hitsugaya arrived a few minutes after his 3rd seat left the room with Yamamoto. The office was pretty silent since Ulquiorra was watching the wall and Ichigo... well, he was sleeping on the couch and only woke up when Hitsugaya kicked his leg. "Kurosaki," he said firmly for the sixth time. Being a captain of the 10th Division, he was pretty busy and had no time for this.

The substitute groaned and put his hands behind his neck. "You're late," was all he said. The captain gave him a questioning look, so he explained him what happened after Yamamoto arrived. With his slightly incoherent explanation Ichigo earned himself another questioning look. "Just sit down and wait," he said lazily, closing his eyes again.

The office was almost completely silent, the only sound was an irritated sigh from the captain. As he walked to the cell Ulquiorra turned to him with a half-raised eyebrow. He really did hope Hitsugaya wasn't about to talk about what'd just happened. He'd made a mistake and will be executed for that in the future and he knew Rei can't do anything to change this - his destiny. But the captain simply gave him a pitiful look and walked to the desk without a word.

Looking at the pile of formal documents on Rei's desk, he immediately noticed the name of his beloved vice-captain. _'So that's why I haven't found it at the usual places.'_ He let out a long sigh and, for once in his life, he started to do Matsumoto's paperwork.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_Every soul reaper was fighting against Aizen's army in (fake) Karakura Town. Captain Hitsugaya's opponent was Halibel, while Matsumoto was recovering from her injuries somewhere safe. The 3rd and 4th seat of the 10th Division was about to start fighting as well at the other end of the town. _

_Even though it wasn't the real Karakura Town, there still were some humans, they hadn't known about in the beginning of the fight so Hitsugaya sent Miyake Reiko and Hoshino Nayu to find them. The two of them were now facing these humans who had high spiritual energy and used a strange kind of weapon: adjuchas. For some yet unknown reason they had the ability to control these beasts. _

_"What are you doing here?" asked the 3rd seat, looking at a middle-aged man in the center of the group._

_Rei placed her hand on top of her zanpakutou's handle, waiting for the human's reaction. She looked at the adjuchas beside him and a shiver ran down on her spine. It looked like a wolf, but it was a bit bigger than a normal one. A living one to be exact._

_The man's lips curled up into a smirk. "What do you think?" he asked in response. Nayu didn't say anything because she was sure he'll go on. And yes, she was right. "Helping Aizen-sama," he said proudly._

_"You," yelled the 4th seat, unsheathing her zanpakutou. _

_"Rei, calm down," Nayu ordered. She didn't want to fight them because a) two against five wasn't the best set-up and b) they already had five adjuchas with them and maybe they had more. The most important thing was now to finish the Espada and Aizen off. _

_A young woman with short, red hair gave them a surprised look. "Are you afraid of us?" she asked in an amazed tone. _

_"We didn't get the order to kill you," Nayu said simply in a calm tone. Rei sheathed her zanpakutou after the 3rd seat signed her to go back and help the others. They turned their back to the humans and the next thing they heard was an order. _

_"Aziz. Kill them."_

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Why are doing this, Miyake?" Yamamoto asked seriously. He sat behind his huge desk and watched the female shinigami as she shifted in her chair at his question.

Why? She didn't know how to explain it to someone like Yamamoto. The old man was way too conservative to understand it. "I have my reasons," was all she said at first, but Yamamoto made her continue the explanation. "We need his help," she said. Interrogation. If she ever hated something by heart, then that was it.

"That's the reason?" he asked doubtingly. "That's the only reason why you're defending him?" He knew how to control others like little puppets, how to make them feel like they were nothing but trash. And it was something that reminded her on the Cuarta Espada.

The room was starting to be too tiny for her. She could hardly breathe and her vision blurred for a second. Memories attacked her unmercifully in less then a single moment. Everything she'd seen during the war was back now; every image, sound and scent. "I... I..." she started, trying to find the right words. "We lost so many soul reapers during the war, we just cannot let it happen again." Yamamoto's spiritual pressure was suffocating her. "We have to defeat _him_. He is hiding in the Human World, right? He will find the humans with high spiritual energy, than will give them the chance to be so-called heroes. I'm sure the rest of them don't even know about Soul Society. They don't know who's on the good side and who's on the bad side."

Yamamoto stayed quiet for a few seconds. "I already know that. Why do you think we need the arrancar?" he asked coldly.

Rei sighed and looked at the floor. She wanted to run away and go back to her little office to work on Matsumoto's paperwork. "He's nearly as strong as a captain. With a little training he may become more powerful."

"And more dangerous," he finished her sentence.

The girl nodded, still looking at the floor. "That's true, sir," she agreed. "But if we can finally gain his trust, it won't be a problem."

"My answer is a firm no. It's way too dangerous," and with that, he finished the conversation. He stood up, and started to leave.

But the 3rd seat cleared her throat. "May I ask something?" The old man turned back and nodded. "What if I take responsibility for his future actions?" she asked, slowly realizing what she'd just said, but there was no turning back now.

Fifteen minutes. Usually it's not a long time, but for Rei it was now equal to eternity. Yamamoto gave her a long speech about something like she'll regret it soon and so on. The 3rd seat didn't really care about what the old man thinks about her plan. The only thing that mattered to her was to make Ulquiorra join the forces of Soul Society. They needed him.

The guards were still standing next to the office's door when she arrived. Rei passed them and entered the room. She saw Hitsugaya sitting behind her desk, doing some paperwork. _'Seems like he found Rangiku's paperwork,' _she thought dryly. Ichigo was sleeping on the couch and Ulquiorra... You can guess what he was doing.

"Captain Hitsugaya," she said respectfully with a bow.

The white-haired captain looked up at the 3rd seat. "Miyake, what happened?" he asked.

"There was a little incident and I wanted to talk to Yamamoto-soutaichou about it," she said simply. The captain doubtfully raised an eyebrow. "He wanted to execute him," she pointed at the arrancar with a sigh.

"And now he doesn't?" he asked.

"No, because I took responsibility for his future actions."

"You idiot," he said angrily as he stood up. "I'm tired to deal with this so come to my office tomorrow right before your shift," he stated and left the room.

Rei let out a long sigh and sat down on the couch. "I really am an idiot, huh?" she said quietly.

"Yes, you are," Ichigo said with a small laugh. He knew Rei had a damn good reason to trust the arrancar. She had good instincts and in Soul Society it meant a lot. "You were talking about someone before you left," he said.

"Yeah, right. Like I said I'll tell you and the others more about him later, okay?" she asked with a small smile.

The substitute nodded. "Okay," he said. "I think I'm gonna visit my old friend now."

Rei gave him a questioning look. "You mean Grimmjow?" she asked with a slightly amazed smile. After what'd happened a couple of days before, she thought they'll ban him from that office.

Ichigo nodded with a vicious smirk as he stood up and stretched his arms. "As far as I know Rukia and Orimihime are the ones who have to look out for him today," he said and turned back from the door for a second. "Then we'll see you later."

"Bye," she waved tiredly and leaned back. It was one of the longest days of her life, and all she wanted was to be alone for a while. But sadly she wasn't alone. At least not now.

"Why would someone like you do something like that for a former Espada?" he asked nonchalantly.

The question surprised her.

No. It wasn't the question but the person who asked. "To save Soul Society," was all she said in response, not looking at him. He wouldn't understand the real reason. He might understand a word like order or revenge but she was sure he wouldn't understand a word like friendship.

"You're lying," he stated as he walked to the bars. The shinigami slowly opened her eyes and finally looked at him. "Why?" he asked again.

Rei thought for a second then took a deep breath and started to speak. "Nayu was a lot like you. Always calm and determined. She gave her life for Soul Society, for me, for everyone in the Human World. I lost her. I lost my best friend. And you remind me of her that's why I want to save you so desperately," she said in a sad tone, obviously fighting her tears.

"Who's that Nayu you were talking about and how did she die exactly?" he asked.

The 3rd seat shook her head. "I gotta go now. I'll be back tomorrow. Good night," she said, and stormed out of the office.

He didn't understand why Rei was so upset and, to be honest, he didn't even care about it.

* * *

**A/N: **Hey guys. I'm back. Thanks for the reviews and favs and everything. Again, it's not my best chapter, but I'm already thinking about chapter 6. (Sorry for the grammar or spelling mistakes.)


	6. Rumor has it

**Author's Note:**

I was already writing this chapter when I read _GothMelancolia_'s review. Christmas is here, so there's gonna be a little present for you (and everyone else) in the next chapter :) Because of that I had to change a few things in this chapter - that's why it took me so long again.

* * *

(6)** Rumor has it...

* * *

**

Kurosaki Ichigo was bored and tired - it was a dangerous combination in his case. He entered the office without knocking and, without a word, he plopped down on the couch between Orihime and Rukia. The girls gave him a questioning look, waiting for him to say something. "I'm tired," he stated.

"What happened?" Orihime asked curiously.

"I was patroling in Karakura last night and I've only slept two hours in the last twenty-four hours," he replied with a heavy sigh. "I spent the rest of the day in Rei's office and guess what? I didn't feel like annoying Ulquiorra." Grimmjow snorted loudly at his statement. "Shut up," Ichigo hissed angrily.

A playful smile appeared on Rukia's lips as she turned to the substitute shinigami. "So you were civilized for a day, weren't you?" she said teasingly.

"Rukia, don't be so mean," Orihime whined.

"I'm not mean," Rukia stated angrily.

Grimmjow laughed in his cell, watching the girls arguing. Kurosaki gave him a _look_. "What?" the blue haired arrancar barked with a huge grin on his face. He wanted to piss Ichigo off. Maybe he had some kind of sadistic inclination towards the substitute shinigami - hey, honestly: can you blame him?

"Don't want me to go over there and..." Ichigo started in a dangerously low tone.

"And? And what?" the former Sexta Espada asked with a cat-like grin.

Ichigo didn't respond because he didn't want to fight with Grimmjow... again. Instead, he turned to Orihime and Rukia, who were chatting like they weren't fighting a couple of seconds before. _'They're weird,' _he thought briefly. "Rei wants to tell us something," he said randomly. Rukia and Orihime gave him a questioning look so he went on. "She was talking about some guy we still have to defeat. When I asked her about him, she said she will tell us everything once she got a permission from Toushiro"

"Actually, I think I heard something like that from Byakuya," Rukia said hesitantly.

"Really?" Orihime asked excitedly as she tucked a strand of her orange hair behind her ear.

"Yeah," she nodded. "As far as I know, during the winter war Rei and the previous 3rd seat, Hoshino Nayu, met a few humans in the fake Karakura Town. I don't know much but I'm sure they were Aizen's allies," she said.

"Aizen's allies, huh?" Ichigo said lazily. "Great."

* * *

Rei was standing in Hitsugaya's office and, for the first time since she was in the 10th Divison, she was nervous. Hitsugaya could be really scary sometimes. He didn't shout, he didn't curse but he spoke in a firm tone that scared the 3rd seat to death. She wanted to go back to her office, to read a book and relax for a while. Maybe she could talk to Ulquiorra as well.

"Miyake."

The captain's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Yes, sir?" she asked, hoping he won't shout.

"You weren't listening, were you?" he asked with a tired sigh. Rei shook her head in response with a guilty expression on her face. "Why did you save the arrancar from Yamamoto-soutaichou's verdict?"

"I really am sorry. I know I should have talked to you before I talked to Yamamoto-soutaichou," she said, her gaze remaining on the floor. "But," Rei started hesitantly, finally looking up at the captain.

"But?" he asked, impatiently playing with a pen.

Rei took a deep breath. "Nel is already on our side, and we can count Grimmjow out, since he's... a capricious jerk. So that leaves Stark, who I don't know anything about yet, and Ulquiorra. And I'm pretty sure he'll join us. It's only a matter of time," she said.

Hitsugaya put the pen down and leaned back in his chair. "You really do believe he'll attack, don't you?" he said, letting out a long sigh. The 3rd seat nodded. "Alright. You and Nayu were the only ones who have ever met them. I trust you so I'm willing to believe you." He knew about Rei's plan. She thought the arrancars might be able to control the adjuchas as well. He had to admit it was a good plan but it was too risky after the winter war. "What do you want to do now?" he asked.

"I'd like to tell Ichigo and the others the whole story," she said, hoping his answer is gonna be yes. The captain let out a long sigh as he closed his eyes. _'Please, just don't say no,' _she thought.

"Matsumoto! I know you're eavesdropping," he said loudly. "You can come in." He was right. In the very next second the door opened and the blond Vice-captain entered with a stupid grin. "Miyake," he said as he opened his eyes again. "You're taking the day off and go to the human world with Matsumoto." Both girls were about to say something but the captain interrupted them. "I have to take care of a few things but I'll join you after that. Clear?" he asked.

"Clear," they said in unison.

"You can go now," he said, pointing at the door. They both nodded and left the office immediately.

Matsumoto sat on her desk and looked at the other shinigami with a worried expression on her face. "Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked, playing with her necklace. She remembered how terrified Rei had been after her encounter with those humans.

The 3rd seat took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. What could she say? She didn't want to see them again, but they killed Nayu and they were the allies of Aizen - and it was a damn good reason to face them once again. "I have to," was all she said in the end.

"You have to?" the vice-captain repeated, raising an eyebrow doubtfully.

"Yeah," she said shortly. "Well, you heard Hitsugaya. I'm going to my office for a couple of things, but once I finished, we can go." Matsumoto nodded, so she headed towards her office.

It took her only five minutes to get there. The guards, since they weren't the ones from the day before, greeted her respectfully. "Morning," was the only thing she said after she entered the room.

Ulquiorra stood up and walked to the bars. "You're late," he stated nonchalantly, his green eyes following every movement of hers. He knew she had never been late before so she had to have reason for that.

The shinigami looked up at him with a surprised expression. "Yes, I'm late," she said, already tired from the conversation.

"You were talking to Captain Hitsugaya, right?"

At first, Rei had no idea how could he know about this but suddenly it made sense to her. "So you heard it yesterday," she said quietly.

The arrancar nodded. "Of course. Will you till me who was this... Nayu?" he asked. He really wanted to know, especially after what Rei'd said about her the day before. _'Nayu was a lot like you. (...) You remind me of her that's why I want to save you so desperately.' _

"Maybe," she replied with a sigh.

"When?"

"Not now."

"Why?"

"Stop it!" she yelled angrily. "I took the day off, so I'll be back tomorrow. _Maybe_," she said, emphasizing the word, maybe "I'll tell you the whole story, okay?" The arrancar simply nodded. "Good. See you later. And please, don't hurt or kill anyone," she said seriously.

* * *

The playground wasn't empty. It was full with little kids who'd just left school and were now having fun with their friends. Rei, Rangiku, Rukia and Renji was sitting on the swings, waiting for the others to arrive. Rangiku and Rukia were chatting about fashion and shopping in general, while Renji snored loudly in the background. Rei on the other hand didn't do anything. She just watched the kids playing and laughing and wished she could do the same. But she couldn't be happy because losing Nayu (the one she always idolized) in the war was still too much for her.

"Good afternoon, everyone," Urahara said in a cheery voice, lifting his striped hat up a little bit. "Where are the others?" he asked, looking around.

"They're late," Rangiku said tiredly.

"As always," Rukia added.

Rei, who was sitting on a swing, slowly shook her head. "To be honest, we are the ones who arrived earlier," she said quietly.

Urahara was about to say something when they heard a well-known voice. "You jerk! Why the hell did you do that?" Renji shouted angrily. They all looked over at him and saw Ichigo grinning like and idiot with huge water bomb in his left hand. Fat water drops were falling down to the ground from Renji's clothes - the other water bomb probably landed on him.

"Ichigo, try to act like an adult, please," Rukia said, not even looking at him.

After everyone arrived, Rei told them the whole story. A stern expression appeared on their faces, realizing how serious the situation was.

"Do we have any idea when they'll attack?" Ishida asked, his gaze shifting to Hitsugaya.

The captain shook his head. "We don't know yet," he said. "Urahara will let us know if something strange happens."

"We'll be more careful as well," Ichigo stated, running a hand through his hair. "But... are you sure Ulquiorra will help us?" he turned to Rei.

"Yeah, I'm quite sure," she replied. "I admit that he's the loyal type but... Ulquiorra was only loyal to Aizen." _'At least I hope,' _she added in herself. "And he's dead."

Urahara cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Those humans don't seem to attack in the near future so we still have some time," he said. "And I'm pretty sure Rei can handle Ulquiorra," he added with a friendly smile, since he knew Rei was starting to lose her faith in herself.

The 3rd seat smiled at him but remained in silence.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm terrible, I know. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting for that long again. // I loved the reviews, guys!

Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS!


	7. Long time no see

* * *

(7)** Long time no see**

* * *

**( Ulquiorra's POV )**

The office was dark and the guards were in the hallway - I could clearly hear them talking about me.

Disgusting. They both were trash, like all the other guards I'd seen in the last couple of weeks. Talking about me like I was some kind of a freak. A weakling. Maybe I wasn't as strong as I'd been before, but it was only because of that damn bracelet I had to wear.

Ridiculous. This is the perfect word to describe the feelings I had toward that shinigami, Miyake. She'd only spent two or three minutes in the office today and I missed her company. Yes, I really did miss her company. She was the only one in the whole Soul Society who thought about me as someone who's equal to her. After what she'd done to save me, she became my saviour. I would have never imagined I would ever think about a shinigami that way.

_'Aizen-sama would be ashamed of me if he knew. But he's dead. There's nothing he can do, right?'_

As I was laying on my bed, watching the dirty white ceiling and thinking about that shinigami, I slowly drifted off to sleep and was in Las Noches again. I was dreaming, and what I saw was my last couple of minutes as the Cuarta Espada.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_My blood covered body layed on the cold, marble floor, and I could sense Ichigo standing right beside me. We'd just finished our fight and, in the end, Kurosaki won. "You finally decided to wake up?" he asked with a small smirk on his lips as I slowly opened my eyes. _

_I didn't answer his question, just sat up and reached for my zanpakutou. "Sorry, but I can't give you that back," Ichigo said, gently kicking my sword away. Oh, yeah, it's clear why he can't give it back to me. _

_"You didn't kill me," I stated coldly. The shinigami gave me a questioning look. "No. Obviously I didn't," he stated with a somewhat friendly smile._

_I couldn't understand it. Of course, I didn't want to die but it was unacceptable to me to live with the thought that Kurosaki only left me alive out of pity. Now I was the pathetic trash, not the shinigami. _'I'm sorry I couldn't defend Las Noches, Aizen-sama,' _that was my first thought, as I closed my eyes for a moment. _'What a shame,' _I added. "Why?" I finally asked after a few minutes of silence._

_Kurosaki let out a long, tired sigh and ran a hand through his ridiculously bright, orange hair. "Long story," he said. I wasn't sure how long a story can be exactly, but I didn't really care._

_"What now?" I asked, trying to hurry him up. _

_He scratched the back of his head. "I have no idea," he said. "I think it would be..."_

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ulquiorra," a female voice whispered, waking me from the dream.

My eyes opened slowly and I saw a pair of grey eyes watching me. "Neliel," I said, sitting up. "What are you doing here?"

She flickered a smile as she sat on the edge of my bed with two cups of tea in her hands. "I brought tea," she stated cheerfully, handing one of the cups to me. Actually I'd always liked Neliel. She's not the kind of person who loves to fight without a good reason. And she knows how much I like tea. "I heared what happened yesterday," she said.

I took a sip of my tea, waiting for her to continue - but she didn't say anything. "And?" I asked.

Neliel let out a long, tired sigh and put her cup on a nearby chair. "And? I hope you don't think that Yamamoto is such a nice old man to leave you alive just because some random 3rd seat asked him," she said. I slightly raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You have to promise me something."

"What?"

"Tomorrow you're going to tell Rei that you will help Soul Society in the future," she said seriously.

"I won't," was all I said. Lately I'd been thinking about the 3rd seat a lot but it didn't mean I'll do anything to help her. The look Neliel gave me was... terrifying. I think that's the right word. Without saying anything in response she stood up and left the cell, locking the door behind herself. Did I do anything to deserve this?

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, I know it's VERY short (and terrible - admit it), but it was supposed to be a part of chapter 6. I have some good news: the rest of chapter 8 is already written... in Hungarian. So I have to translate it then I can post it.


	8. Books

* * *

(8)** Books**

* * *

"What?" Rei asked, looking up from her book for a second. Ulquiorra had been watching her for long minutes which didn't annoy her first but later it started to become tiresome.

The former Espada stepped closer to the bars. "Could you get me one?" Rei questioningly raised an eyebrow. "A book," he added.

"Oh, a book," she said as she put down her book and stood up from the desk. "I'll see what I can do." She raised a finger to her lips, obviously thinking about something as she walked to the cell. "And what kind of book would you like?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Comics?" she asked with a huge grin. Ulquiorra watched her with an unreadable expression. "Okay, sorry, it was a stupid joke," she admitted. "I'll see what I can do later. Do you want some tea?" she asked suddenly.

"Yes, I'd like some."

Rei smiled at the arrancar's answer. She would have never expected an answer like this from him. "Alright, I'll be right back," she said cheerfully.

The girl was out of sight but Ulquiorra was still looking at the same direction like she was still standing there. He had no idea why he had to say that since a simple 'yes' would have been good, too. Since Reiko looked out for him he changed in a few things. And if _he_, being an analytical type of person, admitted it, it definitely meant something. One of the most interesting things was that he didn't consider the girl trash, even though in other circumstances he would have already called her that. There was something else that scared Ulquiorra: he was starting to talk more and more. The heart of the matter was simple: in the last couple of months he'd gone through plenty of conspicuous changes. They had nothing to do with the bracelet he had to wear.

Ulquiorra shook his head to get rid of this thought. He'd been the Cuarta Espada, one of the few people who were trusted by Aizen. The girl had way too much influence over him. Maybe he'll ask if someone else could take over her place. For example Kurosaki (though it seemed impossible) or Neliel. Well, yes, Neliel. He still didn't know if she was traitor or simply she was the one who made the right decision by taking sides with Soul Society. But the former Tercera Espada was a lot like him and like that, she can understand him way better than some regular 3rd seat shinigami.

Some regular 3rd seat shinigami, whom he still couldn't get out of his head and popped up over and over again. Whatever he was thinking about, she was there. In his mind. Very unpleasant.

"Here's the tea," he heard a familiar voice from the door. Reiko put the tray on her desk so she could open the cell. She was happy that Ulquiorra had never tried to escape before so they could peacefully drink their teas at the desk instead of the dark and depressed cell. "I've been thinking," she said randomly between two sips.

She looked at Ulquiorra but he didn't say anything. "After the tea, please," he said in the end.

"You're always saying that if I start to talk while we're drinking tea," she remarked with a small smile.

The former Espada finished his tea and put the cup on the desk. "Whenever Aizen-sama summoned the members of the Espada, we always started the meetings with a cup of tea. That's why I hate talking while I'm having tea."

"That's the time when you prepare yourself for bad news?"

"Yeah, you can say that."

"Wow, I didn't know that. I mean... the other Espada members never talk about things like that. Stark's always sleeping while Grimmjow is... Well, you know him. And Nel barely talks about her time as an Espada."

"It's not a very good thing to remember," he said. "We lost the war and now we're prisoners."

"At least you're still alive," she said. "But you know what? I was thinking about that. You don't have to be a prisoner forever."

"How do you mean it?" he asked, when a voice spoke up in his head. _**'You're talking way too much. Again. In the end you'll be interested in what she says?' **_

"Well, I've already talked to Yamamoto-soutichou about it. Aizen's dead. Las Noches was completely destroyed. Nel'd already joined us. We could use your abilities against our future enemies. I asked Nel and she said we should try to ask you first. I mean... If you would join us."

"Impossible," was all he said.

"Ulquiorra, that's..."

"No," he repeated firmly. "Anyway, why are you forcing it this much?"

"Maybe because your death would be pointless. No one would care if you sacrificed your life for your precepts. You wanna kill? You can do it and we won't stop you. You can kill as many hollows as you want."

"Essentially I'm a hollow, too." he remarked.

"You're an arrancar. An Espada. Superior - and you know that."

"That's not the reason." Rei had no idea what he was talking about. "There's another reason why you want me to be alive."

The girl started to laugh. "Yeah, you are right. I work here for the last couple of months and I don't want it to be wasted because of your stubbornness. Oh, and I'm tired of this office," she went on. "In the last few weeks you bore yourself well and you didn't try to escape or kill anyone. Because of that, Yamamoto-soutaichou is maybe willing to let you out of the office every single day. Of course, only if I'm going, too.

It happened again. Instead of death, freedom or other important things in the middle of Ulquiorra's thoughts there was only one person: the shinigami who was sitting in front of him. He didn't know if he should do what she's asking for or choose death instead.

_**'Don't even think about doing what she says.' **_

_'Why? She's right. Aizen-sama is dead, they destroyed Las Noches, the rest of us is dead and we're now prisoners in Soul Society. This little cell starts to be boring and the guards are annoying, too.' _

_**'At least we agree on the last one. However I don't want you to do what she says.'**_

_'Hn. Anyway, since when do I have a split personality?'_

_**'How the hell should I know?'**_

They closed the conversation with that; the voice fell silent and the former Espada could concentrate on the shinigami again. "Are you sure it's possible?"

"It's only up to you, but if you'll behave well in the future, then my answer is yes. Of course, it could take a couple of days or weeks 'til I got the permission."

"Alright."

* * *

**A/N:** Happy New Year!!! (I'm sorry about the mistakes but I'm too tired to re-read it.)


	9. Author's Note

**Author's Note: **

Hello! First I'd like to thank you all for reviewing! Really, you guys are simply amazing :)

Usually I would NEVER post an author's note like this, but now I need your help. I really do. Basically it's an UlquiorraxOC fanfiction so… yeah. You all know what it means. Ulquiorra has to start talking more and I need something that will generate it.

This something will be jealousy and there are three options: (There's a poll on my profile page.)

1) Rei is on very-very good terms with Hisagi and our little arrancar will misunderstand it.

2) It's nearly the same, except it's Stark and it won't be a misunderstanding.

3) If you have another idea, please leave a review.

Thanks for your attention and help!

_(P.S. I'm working on chapter 9.)_


	10. Freedom?

* * *

(9)** Freedom?**

* * *

After knocking softly, the shinigami opened the door and looked in. He didn't want to distract Rei from her paperwork so he looked at the desks direction first but what he saw wasn't exactly what he'd expected to see: instead of the 3rd seat, he saw the prisoner sitting behind the desk. He took a quick look around and found the shinigami lying on the bed. He unsheathed his zanpakutou and stepped to the desk. "What have you done to her?" he yelled.

Ulquiorra raised an eyebrow as he examined the shinigami. He was trash, so Ulquiorra continued reading the book. **'Trash. You think that about him. But you still can't say the same about the other one,'** said the little voice in his head. He tried to ignore the voice and focus on the text, but he failed and slowly turned to the girl. He made a huge effort not to smile. She was sleeping peacefully and didn't notice that some crazy shinigami was shouting beside her.

"Are you listening to me?" he asked, still shouting.

"No," the arrancar replied shortly, returning his eyes to the book.

The shinigami was about to say something but Rei interrupted him. "What the hell is this noise?" she asked sleepily. She looked at the shinigami and had to blink a couple of times to comprehend what she saw. "What are you doing with that zanpakutou?"

"I... I..."

"He tried to kill me," Ulquiorra stated nonchalantly, not looking up from the book.

The 3rd seat finally stood up and walked to them. "He tried... What have you done?" she asked incredulously, turning to the arrancar.

"Nothing."

"Ulquiorra," she hissed angrily.

"I did nothing," he repeated firmly, finally gazing up at the girl.

Rei closed her eyes and took a very deep breath to calm herself down. She really did hope they will get that permission soon. "You," she said, pointing at the shinigami. "Get out of here. Now!" The shinigami nodded and backed out of the room without a word. Rei then sat down on the nearest chair and sighed heavily. "It's been three weeks," she said.

"Three? Hmm," he said, and turned his attention back to the book.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another four days passed and Ulquiorra didn't care about the permission anymore. That is, until...

"Yamamoto-soutaichou finally gave us the permission!" Rei yelled after she stormed into the room with a huge smile on her face. The arrancar peered at her questioningly, waiting for the continuation. "Aren't you happy?" she asked.

"Your shift will end soon," he stated, glancing at the clock.

Rei did the same and turned back to him. "So what? The permission says you can leave whenever you want to if someone escorts you **and** you can forget this cell because you'll live somewhere else," she said. The shinigami seemed way happier than the prisoner himself.

"Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know, I thought I'll ask you," she said, sitting on the desk. Ulquiorra remained silent though he watched the shinigami. The girl sighed and spoke up again. "Ooookay, then I'll just take you to your apartment."

"Now?" the arrancar asked, following her to the door.

Rei suddenly stopped and turned around to face him. "No, tomorrow," she replied seriously before she opened the door.

Ulquiorra frowned but followed her outside. "Where are the guards?" he asked.

"I don't know exactly," she shrugged. "They don't have to be here anymore."

As they were heading towards his new _'home'_, Ulquiorra noticed two things. One: every single shinigami they passed by stared at him like he was some kind of a freak. He hated those looks. And two: the sun was brighter and more beautiful than the one Aizen had created in Hueco Mundo. He was almost amazed.

"We are here," Rei spoke up suddenly, pointing at a door on their left.

After they went into the apartment, Ulquiorra looked around. _'Plain and simple,' _he thought with the smallest of smiles playing on his lips. _'I like it.'_

**'We're finally out of the cell! Can you believe it?'** The annoying voice had shown up, once again...

_'Shut up,' _was all the arrancar thought in response.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" the 3rd seat asked, giving him a questioning look. Ulquiorra shook his head, so Rei took a deep breath and repeated everything. "Now that you've left that ugly cell, you have to start socializing and training," she stated firmly.

The arrancar only blinked for a few seconds. "What do you mean?"

"Well, tomorrow you're going to meet a few shinigami and I'm sure Captain Kyouraku will bring Stark with him. That is, if Stark's not asleep. And tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, I don't know this one yet, we'll start your training as well."

"Training? Is it really necessary?"

"Yes," she replied shortly.

Ulquiorra sighed in defeat. He didn't want to train.

* * *

**A/N:** First of all, I'd like to thank **Flaming Water **for being my beta.

I know it was a short chapter but I'm pretty busy now. [Next Friday we'll have a (I used my dictionary here) _school leaver's ball_. That's the waltzing type of ball, where the girls have to wear wedding dresses. I'm not kidding.]

About the poll. Current result: **1.) **Hisagi - 7 votes** 2.) **Stark - 3 votes **3.) **Something else - 2 votes. I think I'll close it tomorrow afternoon (local time), right after I got home from school.


	11. Sake, guitar and a new rival

* * *

(10)** Sake, guitar and a new rival**

* * *

If there was something he hated then that was it: someone was shouting loudly behind the front door in the early morning. Yammy and Grimmjow used to do that back in Las Noches. Ulquiorra groaned into the pillow, sensing the well-known reiatsu of Rei. '_She's angry,'_ he thought bitterly, slowly getting up and walking to the door. "Isn't it too early to be pissed off?" he asked as he opened the door and let the shinigami in.

"Morning," was all she said, rubbing her forehead tiredly. "And I'm not pissed off. Yet," she added quickly.

The arrancar slightly raised an eyebrow. He had sensed someone else's reiatsu as well, so he was sure she hadn't been alone. "You were shouting with someone, weren't you?"

"Well… Yeah, but he's usually an idiot and today is not an exception," Rei replied with a small smile and grabbed an apple from a nearby table. She observed it carefully as her gaze shifted back and forth between the green fruit and the arrancar. Though her smile widened, she remained silent.

"I see." Ulquiorra leaned against the wall, waiting for the shinigami to stop smiling and say something about his schedule for the day.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked suddenly after a few minutes of silence.

Ulquiorra froze for a second. "Go to… where?"

The shinigami tucked a strand of her grayish black hair behind her ear, revealing her dark red eyes. She was laughing. "It's a surprise," she said playfully.

"I hate surprises," Ulquiorra stated quietly, following her out of the apartment.

The entire walk was quiet, neither of them spoke. The former Cuarta Espada had to realize that the rest of the soul reapers in Seireitei were still looking at him like he was an outsider. Alright, he was indeed an outsider, but he wanted to help them. Was it that hard to believe? "Are we there yet?" he asked, tired of the whispering sounds behind them.

"Yup, we're here,"

"A rooftop?" he asked, looking around. The place was completely empty. Then, before Rei could answer his question, he sensed the reiatsu of other soul reapers. "I have it straight now. We're gonna meet them here, right?" he said and looked at the 3rd seat, who nodded in response. Beside the yet unknown soul reapers he sensed someone familiar getting closer, too: Stark, the former Primera Espada.

"What the hell took you so long, guys?" Rei asked with a yawn as she stretched her arms. Ulquiorra gave her a disapproving look. "What?" she mouthed with a cat-like grin plastered on her face.

Hisagi suddenly appeared beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "You little liar. You've only arrived a few seconds before us," he whispered in her ear and Rei punched him in the stomach. "You've just assaulted an acting captain."

"I know," she replied cheerfully. "But you don't mind it, do you?"

"Idiot," he laughed and removed his arm from her shoulder.

Ulquiorra felt something strange when he saw them together. He had never experienced anything like this before. His stomach clenched and for a very short moment, he thought he was jealous. _'That's just ridiculous,' _he thought, trying to get rid of this disturbing feeling. He cleared his throat to get their attention.

Rei looked up and squeaked. "Oh, I'm sorry. I totally forgot to introduce you the others," she said guiltily. "That baldy over there is Madarame Ikkaku."

"I'm not bald!" he cried.

"Whatever. So, he's the 3rd seat of the 11th Division and the shinigami version of Grimmjow. The narcissistic guy beside him is Ayasegawa Yumichika, the 5th seat of the 11th Division. Then there's Kira Izuru, the lieutenant of the 3rd Division and Kyouraku Shunsui, the captain of the 8th Division. I think you already know Rangiku, Renji and Stark," she finished the introduction hurriedly but someone cleared his throat. "Yeah, and this idiot beside me is Hisagi Shuuhei, the acting captain of the 9th Division."

"That's right. Acting _captain_," he said proudly, mostly to Rei. "So try to show some respect."

"Respect?" the girl asked, trying to hold back her laugh as she reached for a bottle of sake and turned back to him. "Drink this, and you won't want me to show respect anymore." Shuuhei sighed at first and then suddenly started to tickle her. "PLEASE STOP IT!" she cried, laughing.

And there was the strange feeling again. Ulquiorra walked to the edge of the rooftop, leaning on the rail and watching the Soukyoku Hill silently. He heard the story about Aizen's escape to Hueco Mundo and he wished he'd seen it himself. "Ulquiorra?" a low voice asked him.

He turned his head a little to see Stark standing beside him. "Stark," he said in a monotonic voice and turned his gaze back to the Soukyoku Hill.

"You are strange," the former Primera Espada said as he leaned on the rail.

Ulquiorra looked at him curiously. "You think I'm strange?"

"I saw you," he started but a sudden yawn interrupted him. "The way you looked at them when the shinigami hugged her…" Stark didn't know how to finish the sentence but he knew Ulquiorra understood him. "You like her, don't you?"

"I wouldn't say I like her," he corrected him. "She helped me when I was in trouble and she's the only one who trusts me. I owe her for that."

Stark's mouth curled into a smirk. "Oh, I forgot. You always have a damn good excuse for everything."

"It's not an excuse. It's an explanation."

"Yeah, right," he said, obviously not believing Ulquiorra. "Well, if you want to talk about it, you know where you can find me," he said and walked away.

Ulquiorra's gaze followed him as he walked back to Kyouraku. They seemed to be on good terms and he envied them for that. "A guitar?" he heard Rei's cheerful voice and turned to her. "What are you planning?" she asked with a sweet smile, pointing at the instrument in Shuuhei's hand. '_Maybe Stark is right and I like her,'_ he thought, letting out a tired sigh. **'Oh, please, don't tell me you have... feelings for a shinigami. That's a really bad joke,' **said the annoying voice in his head.

"I'll show what I learned last week. You know…" Shuuhei said, sitting back next to the 3rd seat "this song is pretty difficult," he added and started to play. The song what was one of the most beautiful songs Rei had ever heard. She was hypnotized by the melody and so was everyone else.

Everyone else, except Ulquiorra. He simply didn't think the song was as difficult as Shuuhei said. "Can I try it?" he asked right after the shinigami finished, pointing at the guitar.

Shuuhei shrugged and handed it to the arrancar. "Sure, why not?" he said because he was sure Ulquiorra won't be able to play on the instrument.

He was wrong.

"He learns fast," Rei whispered to him, astonished by the fact Ulquiorra could play the song perfectly after only hearing it once. Shuuhei turned to her and saw a dreamy expression on her face.

After Ulquiorra finished the song the audience (aka the soul reapers) remained silent. They didn't know what to say because it was… perfect. "It's not difficult at all," he spoke up, observing the guitar in his hands. "Actually, I think it's pretty easy," he added, turning to Shuuhei.

Rei found the situation funny and she was the first one who burst out laughing. Then Rangiku joined her and so did the others, while Shuuhei gave the arrancar a cold look.

The war was on.

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

"I'm bored," Rei stated after everyone left and she was alone with Shuuhei and Ulquiorra, laying on the ground with her head in Shuuhei's lap. They used to do it back in the Academy; just hanging out after a tiring class in the afternoon, not thinking about the upcoming exams. She missed those afternoons.

Shuuhei sighed as he stroked her hair. "Do you wanna train?" he asked, trying to find a way to get rid of the arrancar. He wanted to be alone with one of his best friends who he had barely seen since she was looking out for that damn Espada.

"Train? Good idea," she said with a small smile. "We should show him how we do it," Rei added, pointing at Ulquiorra. "As far as I know our division's training field is empty now."

"So he's coming, too?" Shuuhei asked bitterly, turning to the former Espada for a second.

"Of course."

* * *

**A/N:** Hello, guys! Sorry for the late update. I wanted to write a longer chapter this time but I had no time. I wanna say thanks again to **Flaming Water **for being my beta.

Oh, I nearly forgot. 10 reviews for the last chapter?! Wow, I love you all! :D


	12. A trip to the Human World

* * *

(11)** A trip to the Human World**

* * *

"He really did say that?" the strawberry blond vice-captain asked in disbelief, leaning on her captain's desk.

Hitsugaya nodded silently and turned his attention back to the paperwork he'd previously left off. He had a brief meeting with Yamamoto-soutaichou where he got an order to send Miyake Reiko and Ulquiorra Schiffer to the Human World. '_I swear he's slowly going crazy,_' he thought dryly, tightening his grip on the pen he was writing with. '_Sending Schiffer, the former Cuarta Espada to the Human World with a deactivated bracelet… What's next? He will let the psychopath Grimmjow go as well?_'

"Could you do me a favor?" he asked suddenly as Rangiku stood up. The vice-captain let out a questioning sound, waiting for the white haired captain's request. "Would you, please, go and ask Kurosaki if he could look out for them?" Hitsugaya asked as he finally looked up at the woman.

"Of course," she replied immediately. "But… do you think he will do something?"

The captain sighed as he put down his pen and leaned back in his chair. "I don't know, however I hope he'll pass this little… test."

Rangiku raised a finger to her mouth thoughtfully, obviously thinking about something. "I wonder if Rei will suspect anything," she muttered, more to herself than to the captain.

* * *

Reiko was right - the 10th Division's training field was empty. They'd been training for three hours when a small butterfly appeared beside the 3rd seat. "Oh, a hell butterfly," Rei exclaimed with a smile. She loved those little creatures to death. Stretching out her index finger like a runway, and keeping her zanpakutou in her left hand temporarily, she let the little black thing land on it. After a couple of moments of silence the butterfly suddenly took off and flew away. Rei followed it for a while then turned back to the others. "We're going to the Human World in less than two hours," she stated happily, turning to the arrancar.

Ulquiorra slightly raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to say. He didn't know he know he'll be allowed to go to the Human World again. "Why?" he voiced the question that lingered in his mind.

'_Who knows? Maybe it's a mistake; maybe she's wrong. What if she has to go with someone else?_'

'**You're pathetic.'**

'_I'm not._'

'**Oh, really? Then why didn't you just ask them if you could fight one of them? Y****ou know; just for fun.'**

'_Shut the hell up__ already.'_

Right before his other, rather annoying personality could continue the argument Rei spoke up in a monotone and bored voice. "It's some kind of a hollow they saw in Karakura. Pretty simple to be honest."

Shuuhei put his sword away and turned to Rei with a doubtful expression. "Are they really sending a 3rd seat to take care of a simple hollow," he asked, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well… yeah," she replies hesitantly. "And I have to introduce him to Urahara Kisuke as well," she added, carefully re-sheathing her zanpakutou, Yamaneko.

Ulquiorra raised his left hand, tore his left eye out and crushed it with ease. A huge screen-like thing appeared beside him, showing images of the fight between Yammy and Kisuke. "He's the one who's called Kisuke, right?"

The two soul reapers exchanged amazed looks before Rei let out a squeak. "Erm… that's gross, dude," she said, warily keeping an eye on the screen and added, "But yes, he's Kisuke." After blinking blankly for long seconds, she spoke up once again. "Seriously. What did you just do? That was… crazy and… I don't even know what to call it."

"So… will you live with one eye from now on?" Shuuhei asked with a stupid grin plastered on his face before Ulquiorra could answer the girl's question. '_What a freak,_' he thought as he waited for the arrancar's response.

"Do you really want me to explain it?" Ulquiorra asked Rei with a monotone voice and the shinigami shook her head. Then he turned to Shuuhei with a scornful look, thinking about a proper answer. "I'll get my eye back in less than an hour," he said coldly.

Shuuhei was about to say something but Rei interrupted him by putting a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, please," she whispered, giving him a serious look. "What the hell is wrong with you?" The other shinigami looked down at her and opened his mouth but Rei interrupted him again. "Don't think I'm stupid. The way you treat him is just...ridiculous and childish. You're an acting captain so try to act like one."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Leave him alone for now," was all she said before she turned around and walked away.

Ulquiorra followed her without a word and a small smile crossed his face for a second. He didn't know exactly why but he was relieved to know Rei would protect him against her own friends, too. The next two hours passed pretty quickly and he found himself standing by a huge gate, waiting for Rei to arrive. Another few minutes later he found himself in the Human World and suddenly felt as strong as he'd felt long months before. He looked down at his left wrist, observing the bracelet for a few seconds. '_Is it working?_'

The 3rd seat didn't feel like talking so she just tried to focus and locate the hollow. "I can't believe it," she muttered under her breath angrily, since she couldn't locate the hollow she was supposed to kill. '_If you fail, just try again_,' Rei thought and tried again. She could only focus on the hollow for a few seconds then she heard a loud clashing sound behind her back. "Ulquiorra. What are you doing?" she asked after she turned around and saw the arrancar with his sword and a yet unknown man with a hollow mask and a zanpakutou - a vizard.

"I'm helping you, but I can let him attack you if you want to get hurt," he said simply.

"Oh, no, no. Really," she replied quickly, taking a few steps back. "Just be my guest and fight him but try not to kill him, okay?"

Ulquiorra gave him a flat look. "I'm not stupid, woman."

"I know, sorry," she raised her hands with a small smile. Neither of them knew what the vizard wanted from them but Rei was happy that Ulquiorra had been able to react this quickly.

* * *

**Author's note: **

Hey guys. I'm sorry for the late update and the very short chapter (again). In the last couple of weeks I had a huge writer's block and I still don't know exactly what to write - and I didn't want to post only an author's note again. Beside that I had to start to think about which university I want to go to this fall and I'll have to learn everything we've learned in the last four years in History classes again in three months. I really have to study a lot now. As you could have already guessed, that's my last year in high school. It's way more important to me than _'Enjoy the silence'_, and if I really want to work in MotoGP in the future, I have to study as hard as I can. So even if I have plans for future chapters, the story will be / might be on hiatus until the middle or end of June (though I'll try to update). It was a really hard decision I had to make, since I just can't guarantee that I can continue the main storyline in a quality you all deserve - and I just wanted you guys to know this.

I have a deal for you; so if you like the idea, '_Enjoy the silence_' won't disappear completely until June and I'll start a 'new story': drabbles / random short stories (I don't know what to call them; fillers or a spin-off?). When I was thinking about this chapter, I just didn't know what to write and random scenes kept popping up in my mind, begging me to write them down. (Scenes with Rei and Ulquiorra (of course), Rei and Shuuhei, Ulquiorra and Grimmjow, Ulquiorra and Byakuya and so on. Oh, and while I was rewatching the first episodes after the Bounto arc, I found a character that will definitely know Rei from about 30 years before the current storyline.) What do you think about this? These scenes will be very short (drabble = 100 words) and it will only take me a few minutes to write them down.

And last but not least I wanna say thanks to everyone who reviewed (**michiyorain**, **yume girl 91**, **I3Bleach**, **toowhiteprincess**, **cheeky half-demon**, **¤Moon Dancer¤**, **GothMelancolia**, **t4k4**, **Crunch Berry Baroness**, **ani-sand**, **I'llxBexUrxEnigma2010**, **Marie 'n Ana**, **-chibi.x**, **RedSeraph**, **macropterous**, **XxXLIFEafterDEATHXxX**, **the holy see**, **FlyStar**, **Flaming Water**, **NamineNasha**, **Gwenny-Dear**) or faved or put me on their alert list.

_Sweet Executioner_


	13. The playground of the mad scientist

* * *

(12)** The playground of the mad scientist**

* * *

"Who are you, vizard?" Rei demanded harshly as she unsheathed her zanpakutou. There were numerous rumors and stories about them in Soul Society, and Rei knew they'd been soul reapers before their hollowfication but she didn't know their names.

Ulquiorra was facing the enemy, holding his sword tightly, ready to strike at the unknown man. The desire for fighting grew in him radically but he knew he has to wait. He glanced over at the 3rd seat for a moment then turned back to the vizard who finally revealed his identity. "I'm Hirako Shinji," he introduced himself to Rei. "You're an arrancar," he stated, looking at Ulquiorra who nodded slowly. "Why did you save her?"

"Why did I save her?" he repeated the question, letting out a long and tired sigh. **'Because you're pathetic,'** his other personality replied in his head with a sarcastic laugh. Ulquiorra simply ignored him. "Because I owe my life to her," was all he said in the end. He didn't have to see Rei to know that she was more than surprised and to hear her taking a deep breath to speak up. "Remember when they wanted to execute me? You were the only one who believed in me," he explained nonchalantly, like it didn't mean anything to him.

Shinji laughed as he watched them. He was supposed to find out if Ulquiorra was trustworthy or not and at the moment he couldn't even believe that this arrancar was once an enemy of Soul Society. "Are you serious?" he asked, still smirking. The arrancar was about to answer when they all heard someone roaring.

It was a short girl with blond hair she wore in pigtails. She struck at Ulquiorra but Rei stood in her way. Their zanpakutous clashed loudly and the 3rd seat pushed her back with ease. "You know, you're too aggressive for your age, girl," she said with a vicious smirk, pointing at her opponent with her zanpakutou. "What's your name?"

"Sarugaki Hiyori," she hissed angrily, raising a hand up to her face and a hollow mask appeared under it. "I don't like it when strangers getting in my way."

"I see," Rei replied with a vicious smirk on her lips, stretching out her right arm. "Freeze with a throat bite, Ya…" she started but she was interrupted by the other vizard.

"We're done here, Hiyori," Shinji said before he disappeared and reappeared beside the said girl. Hiyori looked at him questioningly after she removed her mask. Suddenly she took off one of her sandals and smacked him on the head. "Why did you do that?" he whined.

Ulquiorra raised an eyebrow as he was watching the scene. It was obvious that the leader was the man; and if that was the case, the girl was unbelievably disrespectful. "I'm quite sure you are the leader of the vizards," Ulquiorra said thoughtfully as he looked at Shinji. "But if I'm right… why do you let her do something like that?" he asked, pointing at the sandal in Hiyori's hand. The vizard was about to answer his question when the arrancar spoke up again. "Though right now the most important question is; what do you want from us?"

"Don't worry, Ulquiorra," they heard Ichigo's voice before he appeared in front of the two vizards. "It was just a stupid little test to see if they, I mean Soul Society, can trust you." He looked at Shinji with a smirk as he went on. "But from what I saw I think you've passed. Am I right?" Shinji nodded while Hiyori snorted and, using flash step, disappeared without saying goodbye. The substitute shinigami rubbed the back of his neck for a while, his gaze fixed on Ulquiorra's zanpakutou as he thought about the arrancar's resurreccións.

Rei cleared her throat, snapping Ichigo out of his thoughts. "What are you doing here, Kurosaki?" she asked with a small smile as a genius idea popped up in her mind. They were about to go to Urahara Kisuke's shop, where he had a huge and super-secret training ground. The perfect place to show Ichigo her bankai as she'd promised him earlier.

"Toushiro asked me to come here and check upon you."

"I'm pretty sure it's still Captain Hitsugaya to you," Rei corrected him and Ichigo muttered something like 'he's not even here' in response. "Anyway… We have to go to Urahara's shop. Don't you wanna come with us?" she asked.

Ichigo shook his head as he tried to hold back a yawn. "No, I have to write an essay for tomorrow," he replied. The arrancar glanced over at him for a second and Ichigo was surprised to see an expression that almost said 'How dare you refuse her invitation?'. He blinked a couple of times before Rei's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"… my bankai," she finished the sentence. The substitute shinigami gave her a questioning look and asked what she'd said. Rei let out a long, tired sigh and repeated it. "It's too bad you can't come with us since I wanted to show you my bankai."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but I can understand that you have to write an essay," she said sympathetically, ready to leave him there but Ichigo stopped her. She turned to him with a fake surprised look.

Ichigo sighed and nodded. "Maybe I'll still have some time to write it later."

* * *

"Oh, come on, Ichigo. You've released your bankai already? I haven't even released my shikai yet," Rei stated incredulously as she was facing Ichigo in Urahara's secret training ground.

Urahara, Yoruichi, Orihime, Ulquiorra and the others stood by a huge rock, and watched the two fighting. Ulquiorra found the training ground quite impressive, though he couldn't say the same about the owner. Of course they'd met before, when he'd first come to the Human World with Yammi, so he knew he was powerful. It was Urahara's personality that annoyed him the most. _'I wonder if he ever stops fooling around,' _he thought.

"Then hurry up, Reiko," Ichigo replied to her statement with a smirk. He wanted to fight and finally see Rei's bankai he'd heard so much about. Some said it was somewhat similar in its appearance to Soifon's shikai.

Reiko imitated a respectful bow and said, "As you wish, Kurosaki. Freeze with a throat bite, Yamaneko," she ordered. Her zanpakutou barely changed: it became a little bit longer and its color was definitely silver. "Bankai. Koori Yamaneko." The zanpakutou transformed into a glove-like thing what ended right under her elbow on both her hands with large claws at the end of her fingers. It was completely black except the claws - they were dark red. A strange liquid dripped from the claws for a few seconds then it stopped. "Orihime," she started as she turned to her. "I want you to keep your eyes open. If he gets hurt, help him. Don't hesitate, understood?" she asked and Orihime nodded in response. "Good. Are you ready, Kurosaki?"

"I was only waiting for you," he replied simply, raising Tensa Zangetsu slightly.

"What did she say what she said?" Orihime asked Urahara after they started to fight. The shinigami let out a long sigh and leaned on the rock behind him.

"Reiko's bankai seems to be only good for close range combat but that's not the truth. These claws can grow a lot longer and she can use them almost like she would use her zanpakutou. Though, knowing her, she's still using her bankai for close range combat. It suits her better," he said.

Ulquiorra looked at him. "What type is it?" he asked calmly.

"Ice."

"Let me guess. The liquid we saw dripping from the end of the claws was some kind of a liquid ice," he started as he looked back at Rei and Ichigo. Urahara nodded and said it was somewhat similar to liquid nitrogen. "So… when her claws enter the opponent's body… they inject this liquid ice into their system what will freeze from the inside."

Urahara smiled as he turned to the arrancar. "Rei was right. You really are good in analyzing things - and that reminds me of myself," he added proudly. Ulquiorra didn't say anything in response, only let out an irritated groan...

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! I have no idea when will I have time to write another chapter but when I saw the number of reviews I couldn't resist writing. It's short and not my best (I admit) but hey; I said maybe I'll only able to write in June and it's only the end of March. I posted the Short Cuts in the beginning of February but I think I'll delete it o.O

**Author's Note 2:** Thanks to Flaming Water for betaing this chapter so quickly.


	14. Something else

* * *

(13)** Something else**

* * *

The way she fought reminded me of Grimmjow. Still… that psychotic idiot is nothing like Rei. I have no idea why, but I just know she's different. She's something else.

Her usually dark red eyes were now brighter than ever. For a few minutes I thought she was fighting by her instincts, just like Grimmjow. I thought she wasn't thinking whenever she attacked Kurosaki. But I had to realize I was wrong. She had a strategy. A good one, to be honest. She struck at Kurosaki's vital points like his throat, heart and lungs. By injecting some of the liquid ice into these areas, she could easily slow him down. And then it happened. Kurosaki fell on the ground and Rei was now on top of him, slowly raising her right hand as she put the other one on the right side of his chest. She was preparing for her final attack. I glanced over at the others but they didn't move. Was I the only one who remembered what she'd said before the fight?

'**In a few seconds, Kurosaki will be dead.'**

The voice in my head was annoying as usual, but it had a point. Someone had to stop her, and since nobody moved, I used sonido to get behind her. "That's enough," I told her, gently grabbing her right wrist. "Let the girl heal his wounds," I added, pulling her up. I didn't even recognize I called Inoue Orihime 'girl'. Actually I still don't know why I said it.

I didn't let go of Rei's hand, not even after her zanpakutou transformed back into its original state. That was the other thing I didn't realized immediately; only after her grip tightened on my hand. She looked kind of scared. "Are you alright?" I asked her.

"I nearly killed him," she whispered, still looking at Kurosaki.

"That means you're stronger than him," I said reassuringly.

Rei took a deep breath as she shook her head. "He was holding back," she said. "He didn't take it as seriously as he should have."

I looked at her and she seemed like she was about to cry. "Don't think about it," I said quietly. She turned to me and when I saw that look on her face I just wanted to hug her. Strange, I know. Very strange. "I think you should rest for a while." She nodded and walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

* * *

**A/N: **Really short, I know. I'm ashamed. Let's call it a short cut. Why did I write it then? 1) I didn't know how to write the fight. 2) Two weeks from now, I'll be done with the rest of my final exams! YAAAY! 3) I kinda felt like writing another chapter from Ulquiorra's POV. (Yeah, I saw the last episode of the anime and read the latest chapter of the manga). And 4) There's a new poll in my profile. I have to know what you think.


	15. Was it a dream?

* * *

(14)** Was it a dream?**

* * *

"_Oh my god, you are back home," the young woman cried, fighting her tears as she ran toward the man who'd just entered the house. He was around 24 and wore the uniform of the German military. "I missed you so much," she added, hugging him tightly. _

_Ulquiorra put his arms protectively around her waist, pulling her closer to himself. "I missed you, too," he whispered and gently lifted her chin so he could kiss her. He'd spent two months in the war. Ever since he'd left, he couldn't hold her, kiss her or even talk to her in person. He had missed her, as she was the most important woman in his life. "I have to go back tomorrow," he told her quietly after he pulled away._

_The woman's eyes widened in shock and she took a step back. "What?" she said in disbelief, hoping she misunderstood him. _

"_I'm sorry. I really am sorry, but that's a command," he replied seriously, taking her hand and trying to pull her back into his arms. _

"_N-no, I don't want you to go back to the battlefield," she stated in a shaking voice. "I don't want to lose you!"_

"_I'll come back."_

"_Are you sure you can keep this promise?"_

_Touché. He knew she was right, but he didn't want to answer her question. "Please, don't make it even harder," he said quietly._

"_Sorry," was all she said before she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder. _

"_Let's just slip away," she whispered a few moments later._

"_You know we can't do that," he replied and leaned back to look at her. "Look at me. I don't want to lose you either, but I have to go back. However I can - no, I do promise you, right here, right now, that I'll do everything to come back to you as soon as it's possible."_

"_Sure?" He smiled and kissed her in response. Ever since they were together, this method always worked when he wanted to convince her of something. "I love you," she said after she pulled away for a second._

"_I love you, too, Rei."_

* * *

Dreams. He'd never dreamed before he ended up in Soul Society. Ever since then, he was dreaming while he was asleep. At first, he only dreamed about his fight with Kurosaki but later his dreams changed. He wasn't an Espada. He wasn't even an arrancar or a hollow.

He was a human.

He never talked about his dreams to anyone. He thought it was pathetic; a sign of weakness. He couldn't remember his previous life as a human, then why did he dream about it? _What_ did he dream about exactly? Just when he asked this from himself, there was a soft knock on the door what opened a moment later. "Are you alright?" Rei asked kindly, leaning against the door frame.

"Why do you care?" Ulquiorra asked almost coldly, as he sat on his bed with a glass of water in his hand.

The shinigami's expression changed a bit as she heard his cold voice, but didn't feel like making a comment. "I just thought you had a nightmare or something," she said nonchalantly.

"No, I didn't, so you can go now," he snapped at her.

"Note to self: Ulquiorra can be freakin' bitchy in the morning," Rei remarked in a sing-song voice, smiling like a little kid. She was ready to leave, but the arrancar's voice stopped her.

"What did you say?" he demanded, trying to keep his calm.

"Breakfast is ready," she replied immediately.

"Good."

"I know," she said with a devilish smirk and left the room. She had no idea what was going on with him. The former Espada was always polite and, well, emotionless. And that morning she saw someone else; someone who was upset, who _did_ have emotions. When she reached the room where everyone else was, she put on her cheerful smile and entered. "He'll be here soon," she said and sat down.

A cruel smirk appeared on the lips of the man who sat beside Rei. "And he'll be freaked out," he said quietly and, thanks to his remark, got kicked under the table. He turned to the shinigami on his right with a 'what?' expression on his face. The woman knew that he didn't really like the certain arrancar; then why did she kick him?

"You're enjoying it too much, Shuuhei," she told him like she was scolding a small child.

The acting captain gave a derisive snort in response before speaking up. "Come on, you know I don't really like him," he said simply.

"I know, but you don't have to be so…" the 3rd seat started, but was interrupted by Ulquiorra, who'd just entered the room.

"Good morning," he said politely, walking to the table.

Urahara nodded as he waved his fan in front of his face. "Good morning, Ulquiorra," he said with a smile, then closed his fan and poured some tea in an empty cup. Ulquiorra thanked him before he reached for the cup and took a sip of the hot liquid. The shopkeeper was happy to see the former Espada like that: drinking tea with soul reapers.

"What are you doing here?" He suddenly turned to Shuuhei, who was staring at him.

"I got the day off and I thought I'll come and visit Rei," he replied casually.

Ulquiorra raised an eyebrow for a moment. "We only left Soul Society yesterday," he stated.

"I know, but I missed her," he said, shrugging.

"Sure, you did." The sarcastic tone he used was definitely something no one had ever heard from Ulquiorra Cifer. The Espada who was often called depressed or even 'emo' by others. Shuuhei gave him a weird look and it was pretty obvious to the others that he was about to say something he might regret later.

And, if the 3rd seat was right, this something wouldn't be bad for Shuuhei but Ulquiorra - and for her, who took responsibility for the arrancars action, too. "Ehem, Urahara, can I use the training room after breakfast?" she suddenly asked, in order to change the topic.

"Of course, you can," the blond replied cheerfully.

"Thank you."

Shuuhei turned to Rei with a questioning look on his face. "What do you want to do down there?"

"Well, maybe I want to train," she stated and shrugged. "I have a routine for the times I can't train with Ikkaku or Yumichika," she explained, earning herself another look from the lieutenant.

"With your zanpakutou?" he asked, and Ulquiorra had to force himself not to laugh or even smile at the question.

"Yes."

"Can I go with you?"

"No, you can't," she replied sarcastically.

Ulquiorra couldn't stop himself and asked something he originally didn't want to ask. "What about me?" His words were followed by silence. They all looked at him, trying to find out if they were hallucinating or the question was real.

"You want to come, too?" Rei asked slowly a few seconds later.

"Yes, but only if it's not a problem," he replied calmly, taking a sip of his tea.

The 3rd seat shook his head with a huge smile on her face. "Of course it's not. I'm actually happy to hear that," she said.

* * *

"Do you remember anything from your life as a human?" Ulquiorra asked, leaning against the wall behind him.

The little training they'd had in Urahara's shop had gone well - incredibly well in his case -, but an hour later Rei'd stated that they have to come back to Soul Society. She had been talking to Hisagi after the training so Ulquiorra had a feeling that the lieutenant was the responsible for their sudden return. Not to mention, Rei was quite upset and he didn't like it. He didn't want to see her upset or sad. Why, he didn't know - or rather didn't _want to_ know.

The former Primera Espada was lying on a couch in an office of the 8th Division. He looked at the other arrancar and sighed. "Not really. Why do you ask?" he asked but the former Cuarta Espada remained in silence. "Come on, Ulquiorra, you can tell me."

He sighed as he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the cold wall. "There are these dreams I've been having for weeks," he said quietly.

"About what?" Stark asked but the Ulquiorra stayed quiet again. "Or who?" he corrected his question.

"I think it's about my previous life but… From last week the shinigami was always in them," he said, finally looking at Stark.

"Kurosaki?"

"No. The other one," Ulquiorra replied, slowly shaking his head.

"The oth… You mean Miyake?" he asked, sitting up on the couch. "Hn, I told you," he added with a triumphant smile as Ulquiorra nodded.

"Told me what?" he asked.

"Don't be stupid. It's pretty obvious you like her," Stark stated and laid back on the couch, watching the white ceiling.

"No way. I don't."

"Alright, then you liked her as a human. What's the difference?"

"What's the difference?" Ulquiorra repeated in disbelief, thinking about the answer. Maybe Stark was right, maybe there was no difference. But he would know if he liked her, wouldn't he? "I'm not a human anymore. I'm sure my death changed a lot of things," he said, trying to sound rational.

Stark yawned and stretched as he replied. "Whatever you say, Ulquiorra; whatever you say."

The arrancar let out a long, tired sigh before he left the office and headed towards the 10th Division's headquarters. He wanted to find out if Stark was right or not, so he planning on doing something, he knew he will regret later. And he knew the only word to describe it was disgusting. Every single instinct of his was telling him to forget this plan but he couldn't. He still remembered how he'd felt in the dream so he had to give it a try.

He opened the door of Rei's office without knocking and shut it behind himself when he made sure they were alone. "What are you doing?" she asked as Ulquiorra stopped in front of her.

"I don't know," he said, extending a hand to help her up.

"You're lying. You always know what you're doing," she stated with a smile, grabbing his hand and standing up.

"True," was all he said before he took a deep breath and kissed the 3rd seat.

* * *

**Author's note:** I can't believe I'm almost over my final exams. I'll only have to attend an oral test in the middle of June and I'm done. Yay! // I'm sure the rest of you already know that Ulquiorra's surname is not Schiffer but Cifer. Well... in my original plans (as you could read it in this chapter) Ulquiorra was a german soldier as a human, so when I'm writing about his human life, his surname will be Schiffer. It will only be Cifer in his afterlife. // Ulquiorra might be a bit OOC, but that's an UlquiorraxOC story so it's - I think - normal. // And I wanna say thanks to Flaming Water - again - for betaing.

A HUGE thanks goes to everyone who...  
- reviewed, faved, put the story on the alert list, etc.  
- voted on the poll  
- read this chapter. Seriously.

(By the way, have you seen the Star Trek movie? Oh. My. God. I'm addicted. Seriously.)

**S.E.**


	16. Changes

**Advised song:** Linkin Park - New Divide and P!nk - Sober. These songs inspired me when I had no idea what to write.

* * *

(15) **Changes**

* * *

"Are you out of your mind?" Rei asked in disbelief, still not believing what had happened. She took a few steps back, not tearing her gaze away from the arrancar. He didn't show any kind of emotion - what wasn't unusual in his case. But Rei was still waiting for something. A confession or at least a damn good explanation.

Ulquiorra closed his eyes for a second to calm himself down. As far as he knew he wasn't upset; still, there was a feeling he just couldn't name. "I'm terribly sorry," he said in a polite voice. "I just… had to try out something," he added, hoping he wouldn't have to tell her about the dreams. The dreams even he found ridiculous at first.

"What the hell? You could have warned me before you started experimenting on me," she burst out. Her head hurt like it was about to explode and she massaged her temple to ease the pain. There were a couple of pictures in her mind she couldn't recognize. Pictures of her and someone else - a man she didn't know.

"Like I said, I'm sorry about that," he replied calmly.

Rei let out a long sigh as she sat on the edge of her desk. "And why did you do that? I still don't get this one," she stated, looking curiously at him.

What should he say? The truth? No, he knew she wouldn't believe it. "You wouldn't understand," he said after a short pause. Maybe this sentence wasn't the perfect choice, still he thought maybe this way she won't ask any more questions.

He was wrong. The shinigami's eyes grew wide in surprise and annoyance. "Oh, really? Give me a chance; maybe I'll understand it," she told him, her voice as cold as ice. She didn't want to shout, because her head was still aching, and honestly, she couldn't get herself to raise her voice while she was talking to him - the one who was always talking monotonically.

"I'd like to but you won't believe it," Ulquiorra admitted in response. He wanted to explain her - he really did - but he couldn't. There was no way she would believe him.

"Get out of here," she told him.

"Please, understa…"

"Now!" she ordered, raising her voice for the first time. Ulquiorra nodded silently before he turned around and left the office. Rei stood up and sat back in her chair behind the desk, then closed her eyes and ran a hand through her hair.

"Are you alright?" she heard Rangiku's caring voice from the door. She closed the door behind herself and walked to the chair in front of the fellow shinigami. "You can tell me," she assured her with a warm smile.

Rei quickly shook her head. "Everything's fine, don't worry," she replied, faking a small smile. "It's just my headache that's killing me, that's all," she added, and this time she said the truth about the headache.

"What did he want?"

"Nothing, really," she replied quickly, standing up. "Look, I have to talk to Shuuhei now, so if Captain Hitsugaya wants to know where I am, just tell him I left because of the headache, okay?" she asked nicely. Rangiku give her a thoughtful look in response. "If you do this for me, I'll explain everything. I swear," she promised.

Rangiku nodded with a smile. "Okay."

"Thanks," she said, hurriedly leaving the 10th Division's building and heading toward the 9th Division. When she arrived to the main building, she saw the division's acting captain walking away in the opposite direction. "Shuuhei, wait!" she called out.

"Hey," he greeted her with a smile when he stopped and turned around. "Have you thought about my offer?" he asked, referring to their earlier conversation.

She quickly nodded. "Yes."

"And your answer is…?"

"Yes."

"That's great," he told her happily. "Though, you seem upset. What happened?" he asked after a short pause. He knew she will tell him her problem, but he also knew he couldn't push her - he had to wait. Okay, maybe there were other options, like alcohol.

Rei ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath. "Nothing, I just have to get away from a certain person and leaving the 10th Division is the only option," she replied quickly.

"Who?" was all he asked, observing her face with a thoughtful look. The 3rd seat shook her head and looked away. Shuuhei put his hands on her shoulders, making her look at him. "Rei, what the hell happened?" he demanded.

"He kissed me," she told him with a painful look.

Shuuhei raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Guess."

"Rei," he groaned, tired of this game. "Just tell me."

She sighed and looked down at her feet. "Ulquiorra," she said, slowly looking up at Shuuhei whose eyes widened in shock. "I'm serious. He just came into my office and… kissed me. And the worst from all is that ever since then I have a massive headache and I see pictures of me and someone else I just can't… I don't remember them. It's like he pulled a trigger with that kiss and woke up dormant memories in my mind. Memories of my past - from the time I was a human or I don't know."

Seeing how desperate she was, Shuuhei hugged her. "You should go and talk to Captain Hitsugaya," he whispered in her ear and she nodded in response, though she didn't let go of him for a while.

* * *

Ulquiorra, after dreaming about the same thing again, knew what the previously unidentified feeling was. Or at least he had an idea: it was the exact same one from the dreams. And he knew the thing he'd felt in those dreams was called love - a pathetic and illogical emotion. But if he'd felt it now, too, then maybe Stark was right, and there was no difference between his previous and current life.

No. Stark couldn't be right and it couldn't be the same feeling, because if the two were the same, then now he was in love. And he was sure he wasn't. There should have been symptoms or something.

Now Ulquiorra was standing in front of the door of the 3rd seat's quarter. He wanted to apologize for what had happened the day before - she deserved that much. And he didn't want her to be upset because of what he'd done. It had only happened because of his dreams, and his dreams had nothing to do with her. It was that simple. He knocked, and waited patiently for her to open the door.

"I'm coming," Rei called out and walked to the front door. Outside, she found Ulquiorra standing on the doorstep. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" she asked dryly, leaning against the doorframe.

"I need to talk to you," he replied simply with the usual, emotionless expression on his face.

The 3rd seat raised an eyebrow, but the arrancar stayed quiet. "Go on," she said impatiently.

"May I…?" he started, hesitantly pointing at the half-opened door. Of course, he could have said sorry right there, but something was telling him he won't get away that easily.

Rei let out a sigh and stepped aside. "Come in," she said, closing the door once he was inside. Ulquiorra stood in the living room, but didn't say anything so the shinigami gave him a questioning look. She didn't want to talk; she only wanted to listen to whatever he had to say.

The arrancar took a deep breath. "I want say sorry for what happened yesterday - again," he said calmly, not breaking eye contact with her.

"Apology accepted. Would you answer a question?" she asked, slightly tilting a head to one side.

"Yes, I think," he replied hesitantly.

"How did you know? How the hell did you know my routine?" she burst out after a few moments of uncomfortable silence. She wasn't angry. She was only curious. The day before, when they'd been training in Urahara's training room, Ulquiorra had done something, no one had expected from him. Shuuhei had tried to copy Rei's routine, but sometimes he had missed a move, but Ulquiorra - who hadn't seen the 3rd seat from his position - did the routine perfectly, like he had been doing it for… God knows how long.

Ulquiorra didn't know what to say. "I honestly don't know," he finally spoke up quietly. "I just… did the exact same routine back on Hueco Mundo ever since I was turned into an arrancar," he admitted, her green eyes suddenly darkening from sadness. A part of him wanted to tell her everything about the dreams, the maybe-not-even-real emotions, the conversation with Stark and the chaos in his head - because there was nothing but chaos.

"How the hell is that possible?" she asked calmly after a few moments of silence. This routine was something she had been doing since she was in the Academy. She was the only one who knew it - or so she thought.

"I have a theory, but I don't know if _I_ believe it," he replied simply in his usual monotonic voice.

The shinigami raised an eyebrow questioningly. "And what is this theory of yours?" she asked.

"I'd rather not tell you," was all he said in response. Even if he wanted to tell her, he had no idea where should he start.

"That's just great."

"Please, give me some time. It's really… incoherent at the moment. I don't really understand the half of it," he said, hoping she'd understand and wait for a while. Her expression softened and he let out a small sigh.

"Good news: you'll have time," Rei told him, using a friendlier tone than before. She was calm, and a small smirk slowly appeared on the corner of her lips. "You should talk to Captain Hitsugaya, so he can tell you who will look out for you in the future," she stated in the same friendly voice, now smiling at him.

For a second, Ulquiorra thought he'd misunderstood her. "Excuse me?" he asked calmly, standing there like a statue, though on the inside his mind was racing, decoding her sentence over and over again, so maybe the meaning will change in the end.

"That's right," she nodded. "Someone will take over my place."

"Because of what happened in your office?"

"That is one of the reasons, too, but I got an offer I just couldn't turn down," the 3rd seat replied with a strange expression on her face, that Ulquiorra couldn't identify.

"May I ask what the offer was?" he asked politely.

"If everything goes by the plan, I'll be the lieutenant of the 9th Division and work with Captain Hisagi from next week," Rei explained proudly as she walked to another room, missing the moment when Ulquiorra's eyes widened for a second.

* * *

**Author's note:** Well... I'll repost a part of the previous author's note. I've just woken up and I'm still too tired to write a new one :)

_"I wanna say thanks to Flaming Water - again - for betaing. A HUGE thanks goes to everyone who reviewed, faved, put the story on the alert list, etc."_

**S.E.**


	17. Hitsugaya’s plan

* * *

(16)** Hitsugaya's plan**

* * *

Ulquiorra didn't know what was going on with him. And, of course, he didn't like it. He couldn't identify all the emotions that rushed through him, but he knew there was confusion, sadness, exasperation and something else he had already felt before - but he still couldn't name it. All these emotions were bottled up in him as he tried not to show them on the outside. Of course, he had been - for example - slightly irritated before and could handle it but that hadn't been such an intense emotion like these ones were.

Another thing he couldn't understand, why was he angry? It just didn't make any sense to him. He knew he had made a mistake by not warning her about the little experiment, but did it have anything to do with her decision? Or she was simply leaving her division because she might become a lieutenant? But maybe it was only happening because Hisagi Shuuhei asked her to try to take the exam.

Right when that name came to his mind he quickly turned around and left the apartment without saying a word to Rei, who was in another room at the time. He had never ever felt anything like this before. All those emotions were about to take control over him and, finally, he could identify the strongest from all: hate. '_Hate? It must be hate, but why do I feel it?_' he asked himself as he made his way to the main building of the 10th Division.

'**Because you were thinking about the other shinigami and you hate that jerk - that Hisagi guy. He thinks he's oh-so-good in everything and that arrogant smirk on his face…'** The voice trailed off and let out a snort.

'_You are right. And the way he treats her is-_'

'**Hey, I didn't say anything about her! I wouldn't even care if he killed her or something.'**

'_Well, unlike you, I would care._'

'**I can only repeat myself: you're pathetic.'**

'_Keep your opinion to yourself_.' With that, he closed their little argument, and soon arrived to the office of the division's head. He knocked, and after the response from the inside he opened the door and entered. "Captain Hitsugaya," he said respectfully. The young captain had always amazed him - he was said to be a genius and he had defeated Halibel, the former Tercera Espada.

The white haired captain looked up from the paper he was signing. "Ulquiorra," he said, slightly arching an eyebrow. "Can I help you?"

Ulquiorra nodded as he walked closer to the desk and stopped in front of it. "So she will join another division?" he demanded, and his voice wasn't as emotionless and monotonic as usual.

"Who?" Toushiro asked, surprised by his odd behavior.

"Miyake," came the short and quiet reply.

The strange look in the arrancar's eyes made him think. It was obvious he had heard about her plans. But, since he was Ulquiorra, this reaction was quite unexpected from him. "If I didn't know you Ulquiorra, I would think it's bothering you," the captain replied after he turned his attention back to the paperwork.

There was a long silent period before Ulquiorra took a deep breath and spoke up. "To be honest, you're right," he admitted as he sat down on an empty chair. "It_ is_ bothering me."

"Really?" he asked, looking up at him for a second. "Hmm, she was right."

"She was right? What do you mean?"

"She said you've changed a lot. And she was right." Ulquiorra gave him a questioning look so he let out a sight and went on. "It seems like you've grown a bit attached to her during the last three months," he explained. "That's why you're upset about the news."

He had changed? Maybe, thanks to all the things that had happened, it was true. Now he wanted to help Soul Society, not fight them. But the other thing still seemed highly impossible. "I'm not attached to her," he stated firmly.

Hitsugaya couldn't believe it. The arrancar was well-known for his ability to quickly analyze and understand almost every kind of situation and now, he just couldn't realize he was indeed attached to the 3rd seat. "You can try to deny it, Ulquiorra, but someday, when she won't be around you as much, you'll realize that's the truth," he told him calmly, looking up at him just to see his reaction.

"I'm not denying anything," he replied, though he wasn't so sure about the answer anymore.

"You've just told me that the fact she's leaving my division is bothering you."

He got him. Ulquiorra slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath - the young captain was right. But how had it happened? Or rather when? Was it because of the dreams? Or had it started before they appeared? He had no idea and it frustrated him more than anything. "I still can't comprehend human emotions," he said with still closed eyes. "Nor why you, soul reapers, have them. They are completely useless," he added, finally looking the shinigami in the eye.

The captain put down his pen end let out a sigh. "Emotions can distract or weaken you sometimes, that's true. But you can't forget that sometimes that's why you can keep on fighting. Hate, vendetta, bloodlust, love: the most common emotions during a fight."

"I still think they are useless and unnecessary. Especially love."

"Why?"

'**Yes, Ulquiorra, why? Why do you think it's useless? How can you have any idea what love is?'**

"It doesn't matter," he replied, shaking his head.

'**What's up, Scaredy Cat? You're afraid to tell him what did you do yesterday?'**

He ignored the voice but it was right. He should simply tell everything to the captain: his dreams, Starrk's theory, the experiment, and its result. "Lately I have a reoccurring dream," he started hesitantly, thinking about how to explain it.

"About what?" he asked, surprised by the sudden honesty of the arrancar. He hadn't really talked to him yet and, actually, he hadn't thought he ever would. But he wasn't faking it - he was honest and he seemed to be confused by emotions. The least he could do was to listen to him and try to help somehow.

"My previous life," Ulquiorra said then paused for a few moments. "Maybe," he added.

Hitsugaya leaned back in his chair. "Maybe?" he asked with a slightly arched eyebrow.

"I don't really know."

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

Did he really want to talk about it? He would be unbelievably embarrassed if it got out. "Only if you can promise you won't tell it anyone." It was childish, he knew, but he needed to know.

"Deal," Hitsugaya replied almost immediately.

"I lived in Japan and just got married before World War II broke out. Then I had to go to the battlefield and fight, leaving the woman behind," he explained shortly, his voice monotonic and emotionless.

"Am I right if I think it has something to do with your theory of love being useless?" he wondered, lacing his fingers on the table.

Nodding, he went on. "At first, I didn't see the woman's face. But I felt everything and I," the arrancar started but trailed off. 'I'? No, it couldn't be him. He didn't have emotions. "I mean, that man was deeply in love with her. That's how I got to know these emotions - through my dreams," he said, letting out a sigh. Did he want to tell him more? Well, there was no turning back now. "Then I saw the woman's face. And it was Miyake."

Hitsugaya's eyes grew wide in surprise and shock. "My 3rd seat? Are you sure it was her?"

"Yes, but maybe it was my imagination."

"Your imagination wouldn't paint her as your wife if you didn't have any feelings for her," he stated plainly, thinking about the situation. "Either way, you should do a little research. This way you might find out whether it was your imagination or your real previous life."

"You sound like Starrk," he said, meeting the captain's questioning look. "He said almost the same thing," he explained. "And, how should I do that? The research, I mean."

"Well," the captain started, wondering whether or not should he let the arrancar do what he came up with. Actually, he was one of the captains who hadn't liked the idea of letting Ulquiorra out of the cell and let him live by his own without guards standing by his door 24/7. But Miyake, for some reason, believed in him so, in the end, he'd supported the idea. "You should go to the Human World and ask Urahara's and Kurosaki's help," he finished, knowing Urahara would definitely help him. About Kurosaki... he wasn't so sure.

Ulquiorra nodded. It was a good idea, though he didn't know who he would rather work with. Urahara could be very helpful and really annoying at the same time, while Kurosaki was... Kurosaki, so it wouldn't be good, either. "And how will I get there?" he asked, voicing the other thing he was thinking about.

The question was good, and the captain had to admit he had forgotten about the little problem that Ulquiorra shouldn't even be walking around Soul Society without supervision, let alone go the Human World. "Neliel will accompany you," he replied after a short silent period. "I'll message her to meet you by the Senkai Mon so you can leave right away."

"You don't have to ask for the Head Captain's permission?" the arrancar asked as he stood up.

Shaking his head, Hitsugaya grabbed his pen and wrote a note on a piece of paper. "Take this with you," he said, handing the paper to the arrancar.

"Thank you," he said with a bow.

The captain's lips curled up into a small smile. "You're welcome," he said then added. "Now go, and I'll send Neliel to the Senkai Mon immediately."

With a short nod, Ulquiorra left the office, stepping out just in time to meet Rangiku outside. "Good morning, Lieutenant," he greeted her, but instead of answering, she sent him an ice-cold look. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Rangiku thought for a few seconds before answering. "What happened yesterday?" she demanded, cutting to the chase. For a very short moment, a slightly shocked expression appeared on the arrancar's face, but it quickly faded away and he was looking at her with his usual emotionless expression. "Look, I heard Rei shouting - which is quite rare, I might say - and after you left, she had a really bad looking headache. _And_ she wasn't in a very good mood, either."

"I think there's a reason why she didn't tell you," he replied calmly. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go now." And with that, he left to meet Neliel by the Senkai Mon.

'**So you'll try to find out if it's true or not...'**

'_You have a problem with that?_'

'**Oh, no, not at all. Why would I have a problem with the fact that you actually think you have feelings for a soul reaper?'** the voice asked sarcastically, pausing for a second. **'It's perfectly normal for an arrancar to fall in love with a stupid soul reaper- someone who's supposed to kill them!'**

Ulquiorra let out a quiet groan as he stepped out of the building and started to walk down the street.

'_You're exaggerating the whole thing. I am not in love with her. Maybe I was once, but things changed._'

'**Yeah, right. That's why you're confused. I mean, you kissed her, and it felt exactly like it had felt in your dreams.'**

'_I don't want to talk about that now._'

'**You never want to talk about it. That's your problem.'**

'_Would you finally stop talking? Seriously, I don't feel like discussing it with you._'

'**Then who do you want to discuss it with?'**

What did he do to deserve this? All he wanted at the moment was some peace. A few minutes of silence before he had to explain everything to Neliel. Was it too much? As he was thinking about silence, he finally realized something: everything that was going on at the moment was his fault. If he had stayed quiet and hadn't started to talk to Rei... Well, he would still be in that cell, but it would be way better because he wouldn't be nearly as confused as he was right now.

But maybe he would be already dead. Would it really be better than the current situation?

Shaking his head to get rid of these thoughts, he looked up and saw the Senkai Mon. Now he only had to wait for the former Espada to arrive. Minutes passed as he was waiting, thinking about whether or not he would be happy if his dreams turned out to be true. Tough question. A part of him wanted it to be true. Why? Because his life in Soul Society was getting boring. Back on Hueco Mundo, Aizen had given him different missions every once in a while: to go and see if Kurosaki Ichigo was dangerous or not, to capture Inoue Orihime and look out for her, or even defend Las Noches. With his past life, he would have something to... explore - something to do in his free time.

"Good morning, Ulquiorra," he heard a well known voice.

The former Espada smiled friendly at him as he walked up to her. "Good morning, Neliel. Thank you for helping me," he said.

"It's not a big deal," she replied, nonchalantly waving her hand. "Actually I'm happy to leave this place for a while," she added as she looked around. The guards who were standing by the gate, reminded her of something. "Where's the paper Captain Hitsugaya gave you?" she asked, looking back at the other arrancar.

"Here," he replied, handing it to her.

Neliel quickly read the note before she looked back at him. "Alright. I think we can go," she said with a smile, heading toward the guards. She greeted them, gave them the paper and they didn't ask anything, only stepped aside and opened the gate for the two of them.

* * *

"Ulquiorra went to the Human World with Neliel," Starrk informed Grimmjow, leaning against the wall behind him. The former Sexta Espada walked closer to the bars and let out a deep growl. He still hated Ulquiorra and that wasn't about to change anytime soon. "Look, the soul reapers trusted Neliel first, then, thanks to Captain Kyouraku, they started to trust me - and Lilynette - as well."

"And now that idiot Ulquiorra is part of this stupid little team, too," he finished sarcastically.

Starrk shook his head. "What I'm trying to say, Grimmjow, is that you have to behave. Otherwise you'll rot here from now on or be executed. It's your choice. I'm only trying to help you."

"And what do you say, how should I do this whole behaving thing?" he asked with his trademark smirk. He wanted to sound like he didn't really care about this, but actually he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in that cell.

"Well, the most important thing is that you shouldn't threaten others. Seriously, Grimmjow, that's not funny. Then.." And he told him a whole list of the things he shouldn't do in the future.

* * *

**Author's note:** First of all, sorry for keeping you waiting for so long! But high school is officially over for me! YAAAY! I brought back Ulquiorra's other personality in this chapter since, I have to admit, I kind of missed him. You know, sometimes I think Ulquiorra has a pretty complex personality and there is a small part of him that is... well... naïve. Especially when it comes to emotions, so I needed his other personality to 'help' him. But maybe this voice will turn out to be his zanpakutou... Who knows? I don't :)

(And the names. Since the official romanized versions of the names of the Espada members are coming out, I try to use those versions. I'll update them in the previous chapters.) And last but not least, thanks to **Flaming Water **for betaing this chapter!


	18. Do you remember now?

* * *

(17)** Do you remember now?**

* * *

**((** _Nine days later... _**))**

Soul Society had guests - unusual ones, to be exact. Urahara Kisuke and Shihōin Yoruichi weren't supposed to show up, but they did. And, surprisingly, Yamamoto had no problem with that. He asked all the captains and lieutenants to attend an emergency meeting, plus he even asked Captain Hitsugaya to bring his third seat as well. They knew exactly what it meant: Urahara and Yoruichi had found something about the hollow controller humans.

The meeting room slowly filled up with soul reapers and Rei's heart started to beat faster. She wanted revenge, yes, that's why she was waiting eagerly to hear what they'd found out. Then it was like her heart stopped beating for a second: she saw the arrancars entering the meeting room and standing opposite of them. "What are they doing here?" she asked Rangiku, who only shrugged.

"They're going to fight with us," Hitsugaya stated without turning to them.

The third seat let out a sigh and closed her eyes. She knew he was watching her, analyzing all of her movements and gestures. Ever since he'd come back and told her everything the day before, she couldn't stop thinking about what to do. And it wasn't easy with him around.

She was right about Ulquiorra. He really was watching her. On the inside, he desperately wanted to talk to her, be close to her and finally find out what was going on in her head. The day before, he had told her everything and she had been so cold and emotionless. _She_ was the one who had always been happy and understanding, and _he_ had been the emotionless one. But now it seemed like the roles had changed lately. And what was so strange about it? He was afraid something was wrong with her. Yes, she had failed on the exam and didn't become a lieutenant, but he had already told her what she had to work on.

"Silence," came Yamamoto's deep voice. The room fell silent, and everyone turned to him. Yoruichi stood on his left, while Urahara stood on his right, and all three of them were wearing a very serious expression. "Our guests brought us news about the hollow controller humans we had first heard of during the Winter War." He stopped and looked at Urahara, waiting for him to speak up.

He replied with a silent nod. "One of them contacted us today," he stated, cutting to the chase. "He said the war will start two weeks from now."

"Since they aren't as strong as Aizen and his arrancars were, I think we won't need every captain's presence. Starrk promised they will help us, so will only need three teams of three," Yamamoto explained. "Any volunteers?" he asked, looking around with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"We will help if thing go wrong, but Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia have already volunteered," Urahara announced.

"I would like to go," Renji said without hesitation.

Ikkaku volunteered, too, nominating Yumichika as well. Then Shuuhei, Hitsugaya and Rangiku promised to help. When Ulquiorra heard the last two, he looked over at their group. He didn't want Rei to volunteer. It would be dangerous and she could get hurt - and he definitely didn't want it. But she was stubborn. He knew that. And that's why he wasn't surprised when she raised her hand and spoke up. "I will go, too."

Yamamoto waited for a while, but when he saw that no one else wanted to volunteer, he nodded and turned to the captains. "Captain Hitsugaya, you will be charge for this." Hitsugaya nodded in response. "Everyone who is not going to participate in the war is dismissed," he ordered and left the room.

"We have good news, too," Yoruichi said with a cat-like smirk after the rest of the soul reapers left. "They can't control every single hollow, since they have to gain their trust first. So if we kill their hollows, they can't call new ones," she explained.

"All in all, we need a plan," Urahara added.

There was a long silent period before someone broke the silence. "We should fight in Hueco Mundo," Ulquiorra spoke up in his usual stoic tone. He knew they would never risk the safety of humans or the Human World in general - the Winter War was a great example for that. Every eye landed on him. "If you don't want to destroy the Human World, we have to take them to Hueco Mundo."

Urahara's face lit up like a Christmas tree when he heard the idea. The arrancar didn't disappoint him; he knew Ulquiorra will come up with something. "That's a very good idea," he said with a nod, waving his fan in front of his face.

"We should send someone to Hueco Mundo to make sure we can fight there," Yoruichi pointed out.

"Yes, and I have to start working on a way to get us there."

Starrk simply shrugged. "We will open a Garganta," he commented before yawning. Neliel and Ulquiorra nodded in agreement, while Grimmjow...

Grimmjow didn't do anything. He didn't even want to participate in the conversation. Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned against the nearest wall, closed his eyes, and hoped they wouldn't want him to talk.

"I'll go to Hueco Mundo," Ulquiorra offered.

"Miyake will go with you," Hitsugaya stated immediately. Rangiku chuckled quietly beside him, knowing well enough what was this all about. Meanwhile Rei didn't find it so funny. She was gasping for air, trying to find out what to say. "The two of you have to talk," he explained quietly. "During the battle, you two might have to work together, but if you can't even talk to him, what do you expect? What will happen?"

Sighing in defeat, the third seat nodded. He was right.

* * *

"_I'm terribly sorry, Rei, but his decision is final. You'll have to wait until the next exam," Hitsugaya told her with a heavy sigh. He really was sorry about her failure, but there was nothing he could do about it. "By the way, congratulations, Captain Hisagi," he added with a small smile, watching as the newest captain nodded in response and wrapped his arm around Rei's shoulder._

"_Don't worry," he said, squeezing her shoulder, "you'll try again."_

_Rei slowly shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. "It's not that, I know I'll try again. But I still don't understand why I failed," she explained. She noticed the look Rangiku shot at the captain, who only shook his head. "You know the reason but don't want to tell me. Why?" she demanded. _

_The young captain__ was about to reply, but they heard a faint knock before Ulquiorra entered. Rei and Shuuhei didn't see him, but Hitsugaya and Rangiku did - and his expression didn't go unnoticed, even if it only lasted for a second. There was a glint of jealousy in his eyes and all his muscles tensed. "Ulquiorra, I didn't know you came back," the captain told him, drawing the arrancar's attention to himself. _

"_I came back shortly before the exam," he replied. _

"_I see. Did you find what you were looking for?"_

"_I did," the arrancar replied after a short pause._

"_I reckon you'd like to talk to..." he started and Ulquiorra nodded. "Rei?" he asked, earning a confused look from her. _

"_Yes?" she asked. When Hitsugaya motioned towards the arrancar, she gave him a questioning look. "What does it have to do with me?"_

_A slight smirk appeared on the young captain's lips. __"You'll see."_

_She turned to Shuuhei, who flashed a cocky smirk at her. "We'll still go to the bar tonight. Right, Rangiku?" he asked, turning to the lieutenant. _

"_Of course we will!" she yelled, almost deafening the captain who stood beside her._

_Rei nodded and walked over to arrancar. "Let's go."_

_They were walking in silence - though this silence wasn'__t so comfortable. Every single noise seemed to be much louder then it actually was. It started to annoy Ulquiorra. Hearing her breathing, her heartbeat... "Are you angry at me?" he suddenly asked, turning his head to look at her. _

"_No, I'm not," she replied quickly. "I'm just not in the best mood, that's all."_

"_Does it have anything to do with the exam?"_

"_Yes, it is because of the exam," she replied angrily._

_Letting out a sigh, Ulquiorra responded. __"You'll have to work on your bankai and you'll be fine next time," he said simply, tearing his gaze away from her. He'd seen the exam and seen her failure as well. The problem was obvious, and he had no idea why couldn't she see it. _

_Rei stopped and grabbed his arm, making him stop, too. As soon as he turned face to face with her, she spoke up. __"What are you talking about?" she asked incredulously. _

"_That's the reason why you failed," he replied in a calm, emotionless tone._

"_How do you know that?"_

_Looking around to make sure they were alone, he took a deep breath. __"Remember when you showed your bankai to Kurosaki?" She nodded. "You don't have full control over it. That's your biggest problem. It would be more powerful if you knew how to control it."_

_Once again, there was nothing but silence. Rei sat on the floor, leaning her back against the wall. Her bankai? That was the problem? She ran a hand through her hair, waiting for the information to finally settle down. _

"_I'm good in analyzing things, remember?" he said, answering her unasked question._

"_Yeah. What do you want to talk to me about?" Rei asked, changing the topic. Somehow she had a strange feeling that the conversation was going to last for a while. Ulquiorra didn't speak at first. He just watched the shinigami with a slightly confused look in his eyes. "So?" she asked._

_The arrancar took a deep breath. "It's about my dreams. I want to tell you about them," he said, sitting opposite of her. "With Urahara's help I've found out the meaning of them."_

"_You've worked with him?" she asked, interrupting him. "On your own will? Wow," she added with a playful smirk._

"_It's hard for me to talk about this… dream, Rei," he said, a bit softer then he originally wanted to. "Please, don't interrupt me, okay?" The shinigami nodded and drew her knees to her chest. "I've been dreaming about the same thing and the same people for a few weeks now. With Urahara's help I found them to be memories from the time I was still alive: World War II."_

"_My father was a German diplomat and we moved to Japan when I was around twenty-one. The war hadn't broken out yet so my life was quiet peaceful. Then I met the daughter of a Japanese minister. She was about two years younger than me; her long hair was grayish black and her eyes were dark red. Even I admit she was beautiful." He knew from the look in her eyes that she knew it. She knew he was talking about her… or someone who looked exactly like her but she remained silent and let him go on. "After a year or so we were married. We lived in a simple house in Tokyo and everything was perfect. But then the war broke out and after a while Japan entered." Ulquiorra's usually bright green eyes darkened as he started to talk about the war. _

_For a second__, Rei wanted to go and sit next to him, assuming the story won't have a happy ending. But she quickly changed her mind and stayed where she was._

"'_You have to leave Japan,' her father told her but she just shook her head. I didn't know why she wanted to stay so much. We were in the middle of the war and her father wanted to send her to Switzerland. She would have been safe there."_

"_But she was too stubborn and didn't want to leave her family," Rei remarked quietly, finally changing her mind and sitting next to him. _

"_Yes," he nodded and went on. He told her the rest of the story, revealing the sad ending as well: the woman died while he was fighting in the war. "I remember what happened after I found out she was dead. Surviving wasn't my main goal anymore. I wanted revenge. Maybe that's the reason why I turned into a hollow after my death."_

"_I still don't know how you could remember all this."_

"_I don't know it either. Maybe the fact we met again," he said quietly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. Rei jerked her head away. "Sorry."_

"_No, it's not that. I just... I don't know what to do now."_

* * *

Their footsteps echoed loudly between the ruins of the tall white walls of Las Noches. They didn't talk. Rei simply didn't know what to say to him, because her going to Hueco Mundo with Ulquiorra had been Hitsugaya's idea - she didn't want to be there. But Ulquiorra's silence was different. He didn't want to force her into something she didn't want and giving their previous life another try obviously wasn't on her 'to do' list.

It was hard for him. It really was. The week before his dreams had become more intense as he had found out more and more about their common past. He definitely felt a lot of things now. Not only the usual anger, hatred, confusion or annoyance - it was something... warmer. Possibly love. But loving someone who doesn't love you back is hard and pathetic. It had only been a day since he had told her everything, still... Somehow he knew she didn't love him, but he didn't want to give up the fight yet.

'_When did I become like that?_' he asked himself, looking over at the shinigami for a second. He hoped to hear a sarcastic reply from the voice in his head, but there was nothing.

"So where are we going exactly?" she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"We can obviously fight here, so I want to show you something before we leave."

Rei gave him a questioning look. "What?" she asked, wondering what was he talking about.

"Our quarters," he replied shortly, glancing over at her for a second. "You asked me about it before, while I was locked up. They are underground, so they hadn't been destroyed."

"Wow, you remembered." She was surprised, but for Ulquiorra, it was only natural. He had a really good memory, that's why his reply was a simple '_hn_-like' sound. "So, where are these quarters?" she asked with a small smile, remembering what Yamaneko told her the day before.

* * *

_Yamaneko slowly walked up to Rei, who was sitting on the floor of her room__. His ice fur seemed to be just as soft as a real fur. "It's freezing in here," Rei stated with a grimace as she looked at the large cat, wrapping her arms around herself. Every time he appeared, the temperature drastically dropped in the room. _

"_You're whining like a kid," Yamaneko told her, sitting beside her leg._

"_You know," she said, letting out a long, tired sigh. "Right now I feel like I was nothing more but a kid. I don't know what to do. What to believe."_

_The cat turned his head to her, slightly tilting it to one side. __"Are you talking about Ulquiorra?" he asked. _

"_Who else would I be talking about?" she asked. "You heard him. What do you think?"_

"_It has nothing to do with me."_

"_You're a part of my soul. It has a lot to do with you," she reminded him firmly. _

_Yamaneko sighed and lay down, resting his head on her thigh. "You should tell me how you feel about it. Then I'd be able to help you. And, by the way, you should scratch my ear. I love it when you do that," he added with quiet groan._

"_You're selfish," she stated, but scratched his ear. "I don't even know how I feel about the whole thing," she added after a while._

"_Look, all you've been doing to him since he told you everything is pushing him away. You should give him a chance. Try to understand him. I mean, he's confused. You are a soul reaper, Rei. Feeling emotions is natural for you. But not for him. I'm pretty sure he didn't know he's actually able to feel emotions since he's basically a hollow; like that he's not supposed to have a soul at all." _

_She slowly nodded. __"You're right."_

"_Of course I'm right."_

"_Your ego is still huge," Rei told him, disapprovingly shaking her head. "So you say I should talk to him? Give him a chance to tell me how he feels?" she asked quietly._

"_Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to get through that thick skull of yours," he mumbled, but Rei pulled his ear. "Hey! That was my ear, you idiot!" he yelled._

"_I know. But thanks for the advice," she said with a childish grin._

* * *

"It's so... neat," she said as she stepped into his room. It suited Ulquiorra's personality perfectly. There was only a bed, a wardrobe and a table: only the most important things. Then there was a door on her left - probably the bathroom.

"Indeed," he replied quietly. "That's why it's better than Grimmjow's. His room looks like a dump."

Rei laughed and looked over at him. "Probably true," she said with a smile.

"If you agree, we should go now," he said, raising a finger to open the Garganta. The shinigami put her hand on his arm and pushed it back beside him. Ulquiorra almost started to panic. She was close- too close. And the look in her eyes was something he had never seen before.

"Wait," she said. "Unlike you, I'll warn you. I mean, I'm warning you now." Ulquiorra questioningly raised an eyebrow, trying to understand what she was saying. But instead of explaining, she grabbed his jacket with one hand and pulled him into a kiss. He wanted to resist, pull away, but he couldn't. Instinctively, he grabbed her wrist and ran his hand up to her shoulder then down to her waist, pulling her closer, if it was even possible. "What are you doing?" she whispered, pulling back her head a little bit.

"You were the one who started it," he replied simply.

"I know, but-" she was interrupted by another kiss and this time, he pinned her against the wall, feeling her slowly giving in as she slid her arms around his neck. It definitely wasn't what she'd wanted to do. It was wrong, really wrong... yet it felt so good and she found herself enjoying what he was doing to her. Feeling his cold fingers touching the warm skin of her back made her head dizzy.

Ulquiorra slowly slid down his hands, tightening his grip so she could wrap his legs around his waist. Picking her up and holding her by her thighs, he took her over to the bed, lying her down carefully. He knew this behavior was really unlike him, but he couldn't stop himself. She tasted so good, so sweet that he wanted more and more of her.

There was only one thing he could think of: he would take care of the consequences later.

* * *

**Author's note:** Thanks for _Flaming Water_ for betaing, and everyone who reviewed! Ulquiorra was a bit OOC, but everything will go back to normal. (Almost normal :)

_Sweet Executioner_


	19. If I was your vampire

**Author's note:** I totally forgot to tell you to listen to '_If I was your vampire_' from Marilyn Manson, because this song had inspired me.

* * *

(18)** If I was your vampire**

* * *

**Ulquiorra's POV**

She was still sleeping, and as I looked at her, I couldn't get myself to wake her up. She was sleeping peacefully and we had plenty of time so there was no need to rush. Her breathing was steady now and, according to the small smile on her lips, she was dreaming about something she liked.

I never thought I would once share my bed with someone else but now, as I was lying beside her, I couldn't believe I'd been thinking like that. Strangely, it was relaxing; just lying there, feeling heat radiating from her body, warming my unnaturally cold skin. And all the things I had felt, I had experienced in the previous hour, were way more intense than everything I had done before. The lust that had taken me over before was coming back, slowly crawling towards my brain to make me understand I needed her - again. So, technically, she was some kind of a drug for me: and I was growing addicted to it.

The most terrifying thing about this was that I didn't mind these things. I wanted it to happen, I wanted her to stay close to me and, for the shortest of seconds, I had thought about staying here, on Hueco Mundo. If I had the ambition, I would have easily become the king of this world. But I knew she belonged to Soul Society, she loved being there, and living here would be like being locked up in a prison for her.

And as far as I know, no one would be happy to be in prison. She would soon become depressed, she would realize it was my fault she was locked up here and, as a result, she would hate me for that.

I didn't want it. I wanted her to be happy, even if it meant going back to Soul Society. To make her even happier, I would help improving her bankai and passing the test. Unfortunately, I knew it meant she would be transferred to another division. And that she would become the lieutenant of Captain Hisagi. That soul reaper was a leech.

With still closed eyes, she rolled onto her back and stretched her arms above her head. She looked like a cat and I almost smiled at the thought. Maybe the fact her zanpakutou resembled a cat had something to do with this. After all, a soul reaper's zanpakutou is a part of their soul. In this case, I wonder if that's also true about ours.

'**What do you think?'**

'_You again?_' I asked calmly.

'**I will ignore this comment,'** the voice replied nonchalantly. **'So, what do you think?'**

'_Whatever is the case, you cannot be a part of my soul._'

'**Why not?'**

'_Because... Because I don't think I have a soul._'

'**You're different. You have a second release, you love that shinigami... What else do you want as a proof?'**

He sounded like he actually cared. Not to mention he was right. As far as I know, I was the only one who had a second release and that's something what was supposed to be - let's just say - the privilege of the soul reapers. Plus there was this voice in my head which was the symptom of my split personality or my zanpakutou. But did I really love Reiko? Could I actually love anyone?

"You're awake?" she asked sleepily, looking up at me with her deep red eyes.

I swept a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "I didn't sleep."

She chuckled. "So you didn't sleep. And what were you doing while I was sleeping?"

"Watching you," I replied without thinking. She gave me a questioning look. "What were you dreaming about?"

"What makes you think I was dreaming?"

"You were smiling."

"Oh, well," she said as she crawled closer to me, her face only inches from mine. "I think it's pretty obvious _who_ I was dreaming about," she went on with a wicked smile on her lips. She did it on purpose, smiling at me like that so I would kiss her again. "Is something bothering you?" she suddenly asked, her smile instantly fading. _Oh, no, don't do this to me. I love that smile._

"We have to go."

'**We have to go****!? Are you insane!?' **the voice shouted inside my head. **'She wants to stay here with you, you idiot!!!'**

'_She wouldn't stay here for a long time.'_

'**You should ask her first.'**

He was right, so I spoke up again. "Stay here with me."

Her eyes widened in surprise as she sat up, leaning her back against the wall. "What? One second you say we have to go, the next you want me to stay here with you. What's going on?"

"I'm confused," I replied, sitting up as well. "I really am confused, because I had no idea I can actually love someone. I planned everything out while you were sleeping: that I will help you with your bankai and the test. But... I can't do this. I wouldn't be able to watch you fight, waiting for the moment when I get the news that you got hurt."

"You think that's what I want?" she asked with a small, bitter laugh, running her hand up from my chest to my neck. "Listen, let's just work on my bankai, help in the war and before the test, I will decide whether to come back here or not. But maybe we could even move to the Human World, like Urahara and Yoruichi did. What do you think?"

I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. Would she do this for me? "You really would leave everyone behind?"I asked, covering her hand with mine.

"Of course I would," she said with a chuckle, pulling away her hand. "Now, shouldn't we... I don't know, go? Because that's what you wanted before I distracted you."

"You didn't distract me."

"I did."

"No, you didn't," I stated, pulling her into a kiss. I couldn't help but moan as our lips collided and she subconsciously ran her finger through my hair. She forgot what we were talking about, and quickly sat on top of me. It was so good to feel her body on mine, but it wasn't the right time for this. Gently pushing her away a bit, I looked her in the eye. "See? I was the one who distracted you."

"Okay, you're right," she admitted, ready to get off me. "But we really should go."

"Relax, we have time," I said, pulling her back.

She was chuckling, but she let me drew her close to me. "We have to prepare for the war," she breathed as her lips brushed against the skin of my neck. "And if we stay here for a long time, they will think you killed me."

For a second, I froze. "I killed you? That's nonsense," I stated. To be honest, the whole scene was a bit ridiculous. She was sitting on top of me, kissing my neck and talking about how the others think I would kill her the moment I had the opportunity.

"I think there are still a couple of people who don't trust you."

"Like Hisagi."

"Ulquiorra, please. Why do you hate him so much anyway?"

"It's an instinct."

"Yeah right, an instinct."

"Or jealousy."

That was it. That was the word that made her stop seducing me - not like I hadn't liked it. "What? Why would you be jealous of him?" she asked, now sitting on the edge of the bed.

Why? How could she ask me that? "Because the two of you are so close to each other. You met him at the Academy and ever since then, you are good friends. And he wants you to be his lieutenant which means you would spend a lot of time with him - away from me."

Reiko gulped, and came closer. "I love you, Ulquiorra. And I want you to know that nothing can change this."

"I love you, too," I said it out loud for the very first time in my afterlife.

* * *

**Author's note:** First of all, thank you for all the reviews and favs I got since the last chapter. That was a really short chapter, but college takes away a lot of time from my life and I think Muramasa (from the anime's current filler arc) took away my brain, too o.O I'm also working on the plot of my NaNoWriMo book.

_S.E._


	20. Guilty Pleasure

(19)** Guilty Pleasure**

* * *

Ulquiorra was sitting on a roof, reading a thick book silently. Sometimes a small smile appeared on his lips and some other times he simply frowned. The story was gripping and he just couldn't put down the book - and it was already the fourth volume. But he had a lot of free time since Rei was on a mission in the Human World and he found his books more interesting than anything else.

'**What the hell is so good about this book?'** the voice in his head asked in an annoyed tone.

'_There are plenty of reasons; for example you don't have to think too much while you're reading it. And it's quite entertaining and exciting as well,'_ he replied calmly as he turned a page.

'**Hn,'** was all he heard and the voice fell silent.

'_Holding the last task in a maze was a genius idea,'_ he thought as he tried to imagine the scene. It was already dark and the stars shone brightly in the sky. Tall, dark green bushes edged the route which seemed to have no end.

'**Geez, I'm not interested in the story.'**

'I don't care about that.'

'**You should.'**

'_You know… I'm trying to read here and I don't want to hear you whining, so would you shut up, please?'_

'**Would you shut up, please?'** the voice repeated the end of the sentence mockingly. **'If you want me to shut up, don't say please next time. You're way too polite sometimes.'**

Ulquiorra sighed as he closed the book. _'In some cultures being polite is absolutely normal.'_

'**You were the Cuarta Espada. You just can't act like that.'**

'_I'm basically a polite person - and I couldn't change that even if I was an Espada member.'_

The voice didn't say anything, he was probably thinking of a retort. Just when poor Ulquiorra continued reading his book, he heard a very familiar voice. "What are you reading?"

"A book," was all he said at first before looking up at the shinigami. Ichigo stood in front of him, arms crossed over his chest as he looked down at Ulquiorra with a raised eyebrow. "What do you want?"

"Are you…" he started hesitantly as the questioning look transformed into a horrified one. "Are you seriously reading HARRY POTTER?" he asked, literally yelling at him as if he did something bad.

The former Espada member let out a tired sigh and turned his attention back to his book. _'Why does he have to exaggerate such a simple thing?'_ he asked himself.

'**I've already told you. This book is ridiculous - and evil.'**

'_Oh, shut up!'_

* * *

**Author's note: **Oh, well. I was bored - a long time ago. The thing is, I've been working on my original ideas, leaving my fanfictions behind, and now I feel kinda bad for that. I found this shortie in one of the folders as well as my old plans. Maybe I'll go on with the story, but I seriously don't know what will happen. (Internship basically means I have no free time at all.)

But, like I said, I have ideas, like Ulquiorra defending Rei... (Spoilers :)


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